Sources: Russians saw a way in

Focus was Flynn, Manafort to get to Trump, U.S. spies said

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. arrives for a GOP caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. arrives for a GOP caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WASHINGTON -- U.S. spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence.

The sources talked about the matters to The New York Times.

The conversations focused on Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman at the time, and Michael Flynn, a retired general who was advising Trump, the officials said. Both men had indirect ties to Russian officials, who appeared confident that each could be used to help shape Trump's opinions on Russia.

Some Russians boasted about how well they knew Flynn. Others discussed leveraging their ties to Viktor Yanukovych, the deposed president of Ukraine living in exile in Russia, who at one time had worked closely with Manafort.

[INTERACTIVE TIMELINE: Events leading up to Comey’s firing]

The intelligence was among the clues -- which also included information about direct communications between Trump's advisers and Russian officials -- that U.S. officials received last year as they began investigating Russian attempts to disrupt the election and whether any of Trump's associates were assisting Russia in the effort.

Details of the conversations, some of which have not been previously reported, add to an increasing understanding of the alarm inside the U.S. government last year about the Russian disruption campaign.

The information collected last summer was considered credible enough for intelligence agencies to pass to the FBI, which during that period opened a counterintelligence investigation that is ongoing. It is unclear, however, whether Russian officials actually tried to directly influence Manafort and Flynn. Both have denied any collusion with the Russian government on the campaign to disrupt the election.

John Brennan, the former director of the CIA, testified Tuesday on Capitol Hill about a tense period last year when he came to believe that President Vladimir Putin of Russia was trying to steer the outcome of the election. He said he saw intelligence suggesting that Russia wanted to use Trump campaign officials, wittingly or not, to help in that effort.

Brennan spoke vaguely about contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials, without giving names, saying they "raised questions in my mind about whether Russia was able to gain the cooperation of those individuals."

Whether the Russians worked directly with any Trump advisers is one of the central questions that federal investigators, now led by Robert Mueller, the newly appointed special counsel, are seeking to answer. Trump, for his part, has dismissed talk of Russian interference in the election as "fake news," insisting that there was no contact between his campaign and Russian officials.

The White House, FBI and CIA declined to comment, as did spokesmen for Manafort. Flynn's attorney did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee, pressuring Flynn to cooperate with its investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, will likely issue subpoenas as soon as this week for information from Flynn and his companies, according to the panel's top Democrat.

Flynn has failed to voluntarily provide documents that committee members had requested for their probe.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said the panel "would explore whatever compulsory process that we would need to use" to compel information from Flynn, including subpoenas and, if those are rejected, the option of citing Flynn for contempt. He made those comments during a breakfast with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has been grappling with such options this week, after Flynn's lawyers informed the panel that he would not comply with a subpoena for documents relating to his contacts with Russian officials between June 16, 2015, and Jan. 20, 2017, arguing that Flynn had a Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The Senate panel responded to that letter Tuesday by issuing two new subpoenas for information from Flynn's companies, arguing, as vice chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., put it, "a business does not have the right to take the Fifth."

The FBI also faced a deadline Wednesday to turn over memos written by former FBI Director James Comey detailing his discussions with Trump. One memo reportedly shows Trump pressuring Comey to shut down the bureau's investigation into Flynn's Russia ties.

If the FBI misses its deadline to turn over memos and other materials documenting Comey's interactions with the president, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, has said he would subpoena them, if necessary. Chaffetz is the chairman of the House government oversight committee.

The FBI declined to comment.

And former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page said he will testify next month before the House Intelligence Committee. ABC News first reported Page's planned testimony.

Page is one of several people associated with Trump's campaign who are under investigation over their ties to Russia. Page has denied any involvement in Russian attempts to influence the election.

Information for this article was contributed by Matthew Rosenberg, Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo of The New York Times; by Chad Day, Stephen Braun and Eric Tucker of The Associated Press; and by Karoun Demirjian of The Washington Post.

A Section on 05/25/2017

Upcoming Events