Donald Trump. (photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
'Concrete
Evidence of Collusion Between Trump Team and Russia' Handed to Official
Investigation
By Chalotta England,
Independent
15 April 17
New evidence comes as sources reveal British spy agency GCHQ
played pivotal role in uncovering interactions between US President and Russian
operatives
The
official investigation into relations between Donald Trump and Russia now has
"specific, concrete and corroborative evidence of collusion", it has
been reported.
New
evidence proves discussions took place “between people in the Trump campaign
and agents of [Russian] influence relating to the use of hacked material,” a source
allegedly told the Guardian.
The
developments come as it has emerged that Britain’s spy agencies were among the
first to alert their American counterparts to contact between members of Mr
Trump’s campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives.
British
and other European intelligence agencies first intercepted suspicious
“interactions” between people associated with the US President and Russian
officials in 2015 as part of routine surveillance of Russia, intelligence
sources have confirmed to a number of different publications.
Spy
agencies, including GCHQ, were not deliberately targeting members of the Trump
team but rather recorded communications through “incidental collection,” CNN reports.
This
intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information
under the "Five Eyes“ agreement, which calls for open sharing of certain
types of information among member nations the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand
and Canada.
Over
several months, different agencies targeting the same people began to see a
pattern in communications between the Republican's inner circle and Russian
operatives. For six months, until summer 2016, these interactions were
repeatedly flagged to intelligence officials in the US, who sources have said
were slow to act.
“It
looks like the [US] agencies were asleep,” a source told the Guardian. “They
[the European agencies] were saying: ‘There are contacts going on between
people close to Mr. Trump and people we believe are Russian intelligence
agents. You should be wary of this.’
“The
message was: ‘Watch out. There’s something not right here.’”
GCHQ's
involvement in the investigation is controversial, with Mr. Trump's press
secretary, Sean Spicer, having previously accused the "British spying
agency" of bugging Trump Tower on behalf of Barack Obama. Mr. Spicer cited
an unsubstantiated report on Fox News, from which the television station later
distanced itself.
At the
time GCHQ diverged from its usual policy of refraining from commenting to the
media, describing the allegations as "nonsense".
“They
are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored,” a spokesperson for the agency
said.
But
both US and UK intelligence sources now acknowledge that GCHQ played an early
and important role in kickstarting the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation, which
began in late July 2016.
One
source told the Guardian the British eavesdropping agency was the “principal
whistleblower”.
A GCHQ
spokesperson declined to comment on the revelations, saying: “It is
longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters”.
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