May 23, 2017 ... SUBSCRIBE NOW ... Mr. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, said Tuesday that he ... “Lives are at stake in many instances, and leaks jeopardize those ... Mr. Trump's former national security adviser, the committee's senior members said. ... as a foreign agent after being forced out of the Trump administration.
Former C.I.A. Chief Tells of Concern Over Possible Russia Ties to Trump Campaign
• John O. Brennan, the former director of the C.I.A., said publicly for the first time Tuesday that he was concerned about possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
•
President Trump asked two top intelligence officials to deny the
existence of any evidence of collusion between his campaign and Russia,
former officials said. Both of the intelligence officials testified
before lawmakers on Tuesday.
Watch Live: Mike Rogers, N.S.A. Director, TestifiesVideo by The New York Times
The former C.I.A. chief speaks publicly about his worries.
Mr.
Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, said Tuesday that he became
concerned last year that the Russian government was trying to influence
members of the Trump campaign to act — wittingly or unwittingly — on
Moscow’s behalf.
“I
encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed
contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons
involved in the Trump campaign that I was concerned about because of
known Russian efforts to suborn such individuals,” Mr. Brennan told
lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee.
“It
raised questions in my mind about whether Russia was able to gain the
cooperation of those individuals,” he said, adding that he did not know
whether the Russian efforts were successful.
He added, “I don’t know whether such collusion existed.”
It was the first time he publicly acknowledged that he was concerned about possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
He
said he left office in January with many unanswered questions about the
Russian influence operation. Intelligence officials have said Russia
tried to tip the election toward Mr. Trump.
Mr. Brennan became so concerned
last summer about signs of Russian election meddling that he held
urgent, classified briefings for eight senior members of Congress,
speaking with some of them over secure phone lines while they were on
recess. In those conversations, he told lawmakers there was evidence
that Russia was working to elect Mr. Trump president.
Mr.
Brennan was also one of a handful of officials who briefed both
President Barack Obama and Mr. Trump in January on a broad intelligence
community report revealing that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had personally ordered an “influence campaign” targeting the presidential election.
— Matt Apuzzo
Watch the hearing here:
Watch Live: Brennan, Former C.I.A. Director, TestifiesVideo by The New York Times
Trump asked two intelligence chiefs to push back on the inquiry, officials say.
Mr.
Trump asked two of the country’s top intelligence officials to make
public statements saying there was no evidence of collusion between his
campaign and Russian officials, hoping to undercut an F.B.I.
investigation into meddling by Russia in the 2016 presidential election,
two former American officials said.
The
requests were made in late March to Dan Coats, the director of national
intelligence, and Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the chief of the National
Security Agency. Both men rebuffed the request, which they saw as an
inappropriate effort to inject politics into an intelligence and law
enforcement matter, the former officials said.
Watch Live: Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee.Video by PBS NewsHour
Days
before, James B. Comey, then the F.B.I. director, had publicly
acknowledged for the first time that the bureau was running a broad
counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s interference in the
presidential campaign and any possible collusion between associates of
Mr. Trump and Russian officials. The revelation stung Mr. Trump, who has
repeatedly said there was no collusion, and he wanted Mr. Coats and
Admiral Rogers to publicly back him.
On
the day of Mr. Comey’s hearing, a call from the White House switchboard
came in to Mr. Coats’s office with a request to speak to the director, a
former intelligence official said. Calls from the switchboard are
usually from the highest officials at the White House — the president,
the vice president or the national security adviser.
Mr. Coats took the call. The official would not confirm what was discussed.
Coats declines to detail conversations with Trump.
Photo
Dan Coats, the director of National Intelligence, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.Credit
Doug Mills/The New York Times
Senator
John McCain of Arizona, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services
Committee, opened questioning at a hearing Tuesday by asking Mr. Coats about Mr. Trump’s request to publicly dispute that any evidence exists of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“Is that an accurate reporting, Director Coats?” Mr. McCain asked.
Mr. Coats said he could not publicly discuss the subject.
“As
the president’s principal intelligence adviser, I’m fortunate to spend a
significant amount of time with the president discussing national
security interests and intelligence as it relates to those interests,”
Mr. Coats said. “We discuss a number of topics.”
But
because of the sensitivity of their conversations, Mr. Coats said,
“it’s not appropriate for me to comment publicly on any of that.”
Mr. McCain asked whether reports based on unnamed sources are problematic.
“Lives are at stake in many instances, and leaks jeopardize those lives,” Mr. Coats said.
— Emmarie Huetteman
More Flynn documents are being subpoenaed.
The
Senate Intelligence Committee issued subpoenas Tuesday for documents
from two businesses owned by Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s former
national security adviser, the committee’s senior members said.
Senator
Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the committee’s Republican chairman,
said panel members had also written back to Mr. Flynn’s legal team,
requesting clarity about whether the Fifth Amendment could indeed shield
an individual from producing documents, as well as challenging his
claim that the committee’s previous requests for documents lacked
specificity.
Mr. Burr left open the possibility of holding Mr. Flynn in contempt of Congress.
“At the end of that option is a contempt charge,” he told reporters. “And I’ve said that everything is on the table.”
But
the committee members are not ready to take that step, Mr. Burr said,
adding that they want to give Mr. Flynn the opportunity he requested to
tell his story.
Senator
Mark Warner of Virginia, the panel’s top Democrat, said the subpoenas
were for the firms Flynn Intel LLC and Flynn Intel Incorporated.
“We
disagree with General Flynn’s lawyers’ interpretation of taking the
Fifth,” he said. “It is even more clear that a business does not have a
right to take the Fifth as a corporation.”
Flynn
Intel Group was hired by a Turkish-American businessman to represent
Turkish interests in a dispute with the United States government last
year, while Mr. Flynn was advising the Trump campaign. He was paid more
than $500,000. Mr. Flynn, who initially did not file the paperwork to
disclose this connection, belatedly registered with the government as a
foreign agent after being forced out of the Trump administration.
— Emmarie Huetteman
Official says Russia may have had two aims.
One
of the enduring questions about Russia’s interference in the 2016
presidential election is whether the Russian government wanted to simply
hurt Hillary Clinton or was actively trying to secure the election of
Mr. Trump.
Asked which one he believed to be the case, Mr. Brennan said: “My assessment is it was both.”
Mr.
Putin had long viewed Ms. Clinton as an implacable foe, he explained,
and saw in Mr. Trump a businessman who might take a softer line on
Russia.
“They
felt that Mr. Trump, being a bit of an outsider, that they in the past
had some good relations with businessmen who happened to elevate into
positions of government authority,” Mr. Brennan said.
“They
clearly had a more favorable view toward Mr. Trump and actions they
were taking were trying to increase his prospects, even though they
probably thought they were not that great,” he said.
“They
anticipated that Secretary Clinton was going to win the election, and I
believe they tried to damage and bloody her before the election,” Mr.
Brennan said.
Asked
whether the Russians collected intelligence on Mrs. Clinton that they
did not use during the campaign, Mr. Brennan responded that if they did,
“their efforts to denigrate her and hurt her would have continued
during her presidency.”
— Matthew Rosenberg
Ethics experts clear Mueller as the special counsel.
The
Trump administration said Tuesday that ethics experts had decided that
Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the federal
investigation into possible Russian interference in the election, could
carry out the inquiry even though his former law firm represents some of
Mr. Trump’s family members and his former campaign chairman.
The
firm, WilmerHale, represents Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign
chairman, and Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
While Mr. Mueller did not personally represent them, Reuters reported
that the White House was considering using conflict-of-interest rules to undermine the investigation.
Mr. Mueller resigned his role as a partner at WilmerHale to become the special counsel.
In
a statement on Tuesday, the Justice Department noted that its
regulations permit a waiver to be issued and noted that professional
responsibility rules permit Mr. Mueller to participate in matters
involving his former law firm’s clients “so long as he has no
confidential information about the client and did not participate in the
representation.”
“Department
ethics experts have reviewed the matters and determined that Mr.
Mueller’s participation in the matters assigned to him is appropriate,”
the statement said.
— Charlie Savage
Russia may try to interfere in 2018 elections, a former C.I.A. director warns.
Asked
whether he believed Russia would try to interfere in the 2018 midterm
elections, Mr. Brennan said, “I have, unfortunately, a grudging respect
for Russian intelligence capabilities, their aggressiveness, their
pervasiveness and their determination to do what they can do undermine
this country’s democracy and democratic institutions.”
He said Russia would continue to try to “exploit elections,” but was also looking at other targets.
Russian
intelligence was aggressively trying to collect intelligence about
prominent Americans both inside and outside the government, Mr. Brennan
said. The Russians would use whatever information they obtained to gain
influence over individuals who help shape American opinion.
— Matthew Rosenberg
Correction: May 23, 2017
An earlier version of a home page summary for this article
misidentified the lawmakers before whom Mr. Brennan was testifying. As
the article correctly notes, he was at a hearing of House members, not
senators.
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