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?????????????????????????????????????????????????Thursday, May 25, 2017
Former
CIA director John Brennan testified May 23 before the House Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence about Russia’s influence on the 2016
presidential election. (The Washington Post)
By Greg Miller May 23 at 10:09 PM
The CIA alerted the FBI to a troubling pattern of contacts between Russian officials and associates of the Trump campaign last year, former agency director John Brennan testified on Tuesday, shedding new light on the origin of a criminal probe that now reaches into the White House.
The CIA alerted the FBI to a troubling pattern of contacts between Russian officials and associates of the Trump campaign last year, former agency director John Brennan testified on Tuesday, shedding new light on the origin of a criminal probe that now reaches into the White House.
In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Brennan said he
became increasingly concerned that Trump associates were being
manipulated by Russian intelligence services as part of a broader covert
influence campaign that sought to disrupt the election and deliver the
presidency to Donald Trump.
“I was worried by a number of the contacts that the Russians had with
U.S. persons,” Brennan said, adding that he did not see proof of
collusion before he left office on Jan. 20, but “felt as though the FBI
investigation was certainly well-founded and needed to look into those
issues.”
Brennan’s remarks represent the most detailed public accounting to date
of his tenure as CIA director during the alleged Russian assault on the
U.S. presidential race, and the agency’s role in triggering an FBI probe
that Trump has sought to contain.
“It should be clear to everyone that Russia brazenly interfered in our
2016 presidential election process,” Brennan said at one point, one of
several moments in which his words seemed aimed squarely at the
president.
Trump has refused to fully accept the unanimous conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that
Russia stole thousands of sensitive emails, orchestrated online dumps
of damaging information and employed fake news and other means to upend
the 2016 race.
GOP lawmakers spent much of Tuesday’s hearing trying to get Brennan to
concede that he had no conclusive evidence of collusion between the
Trump campaign and Moscow. Brennan acknowledged that he still had
“unresolved questions” about the purpose of those contacts when he
stepped down as CIA director in January.
But, “I know what the Russians try to do,” Brennan said. “They try to
suborn individuals and they try to get individuals, including U.S.
persons, to act on their behalf either wittingly or unwittingly.”
Brennan refused to name any of the U.S. individuals who were apparently
detected communicating with Russian officials. The FBI investigation,
which began last July, has scrutinized Trump associates including Paul
Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager; Carter Page, who was once
listed as a foreign policy adviser to Trump; and former national
security adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign after misleading statements about his contacts with the Russian ambassador were exposed.
The probe has intensified in recent weeks and identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest.
Because Russia uses intermediaries and other measures to disguise its
hand, “many times, [U.S. individuals] do not know that the individual
they are interacting with is a Russian,” Brennan said.
The Washington Post's Adam Entous explains how President Trump asked two top ranking intelligence officials to publicly deny any connection between his campaign and Russia.(Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post)
He added that Russian agencies routinely seek to gather compromising
information, or “kompromat,” to coerce treason from U.S. officials who
“do not even realize they are on that path until it gets too late.” The
remark appeared to be in reference to Flynn.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is issuing two new subpoenas for
information from Flynn’s companies and challenging his lawyer’s refusal
to comply with an existing subpoena for documents detailing his contacts
with Russian officials, committee leaders announced Tuesday.
“A business does not have the right to take the Fifth,” Sen. Mark R.
Warner (Va.), the committee’s lead Democrat, told reporters as he and
Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) pledged to “keep all options on the
table.”
Brennan was also asked about Trump’s disclosure of highly classified
information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White
House meeting this month. Brennan said that the CIA at times provided
tips about terrorist plots to the Kremlin, but he indicated that Trump
violated key protocols.
Sensitive information should only be passed through intelligence
services, not divulged to foreign ministers or ambassadors, Brennan
said. Referring to the information revealed by Trump, Brennan said it
had neither gone through “the proper channels nor did the originating
agency have the opportunity to clear language for it.”
Brennan was a key figure in the Obama administration’s handling of
Russian election interference. As alarm grew, Brennan held classified
meetings with top congressional officials in the fall to impress upon
them the unprecedented nature of Moscow’s interference.
Later, Brennan was among the top officials who briefed
then-President-elect Trump on the scale of Russia’s intervention, and
its assessed goal of helping Trump win.
On Tuesday, Brennan testified that he was the first to confront a senior
member of the Russian government on the matter, using an August phone
conversation with the head of Russia’s security service, the FSB, to
warn that the meddling would backfire and damage the country’s
relationship with the United States.
Brennan said he told FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov that “American voters
would be outraged by any Russian attempt to interfere in the election”
and that such activity “would destroy any near-term prospect of
improvement” in relations with the United States.
Bortnikov twice denied that Russia was waging such a campaign, according
to Brennan, but said he would carry the message to Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
“I believe I was the first U.S. official to brace Russia on this matter,” Brennan said.
The Obama administration went on to issue statements publicly accusing
Moscow of election meddling, and in December announced punitive measures
including the expulsion of 35 suspected Russian intelligence operatives
from the United States.
Despite those warnings and efforts at retaliation, Brennan said that
Russia was probably not dissuaded from attempting similar interference
operations in the future.
The former CIA chief is the latest senior Obama administration official
to appear publicly before Congress in hearings that have often produced
damaging headlines for Trump.
Earlier this month, former acting attorney general Sally Yates testified that she expected White House officials to “take action” after warning that Flynn had misled administration officials about his contacts with Russia.
At that same hearing, former director of national intelligence James R.
Clapper Jr. said that Moscow’s leaders “must be congratulating
themselves for having exceeded their wildest expectations with a minimal
expenditure of resource,” a reference not only to the outcome of the
2016 race but also to the chaos that has characterized the early months
of the Trump administration.
Brennan has feuded publicly with Trump over the president’s treatment of intelligence agencies. In January, he lashed out at Trump for comparing U.S. spy agencies with Nazi secret police.
Brennan was particularly offended by Trump’s remarks during a speech at
CIA headquarters on the day after he was inaugurated. Trump used the
CIA’s Memorial Wall — a collection of engraved stars marking the lives
of agency operatives killed in the line of duty — to launch a rambling
speech in which he bragged about his election victory.
Brennan called the appearance “despicable” and said that Trump should be “ashamed.”
Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.