Testimony of a former Cia Director John Brennan in front of the Intelligence Committee is the latest in a series of testimonies regarding contacts of US President Donald Trump and Russian officials. As the Washington Post reports, although members of trump Republican committee members tried to use testimony to discredit accusations and investigations parallel to Congress, the Senate, the FBI, and Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, they seem to have inadvertently only hindered Trump's position.
Brennan refused to answer the question about evidence
To the direct question of Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy whether last year, while he was a CIA director, he saw evidence of Trump's pre-election staffing with the Russian intervention in the elections, Brennan refused to confirm or deny that such evidence exists, and said that he "does not know" the answer to that question. Instead, he explained that his agency, which does not deal with criminal investigations but intelligence work, is not responsible for such an investigation and has therefore forwarded all information about contacts between Trump's associates and Russian officials to the FBI.
Comey's agency was investigating ties between Trump and Russia
Former FBI director James Comey, who was fired by Trump earlier this month, testified in March in front of the same commission that his agency was really investigating "whether there was a co-ordination between (Trump's) campaigns and Russian attempts". However, Brennan unequivocally announced that in the summer of 2016 he was already "convinced" that Russia embarked on an "insolent" and "very aggressive" attempt to interfere in US elections and that he had seen enough information about "contacts and interactions" between the stated factors to conclude that "there was a sufficient basis for intelligence that requires further investigation" about possible association.
Brennan explained that all possible evidence of association was "reasonably confidential", but stressed that he was particularly concerned about uncovered contacts due to the pattern of "well-known Russian attempts to bribe or manipulate" suitable individuals to "do things in their favor."
This discovery is particularly relevant in the context of the last series of Trump's scandals and FBI investigation.
Except for the US media announcing Comey's note that Trump had tried to persuade him to give up on his former national security Advisor Mike Flynn, the Washington Post released another shocking discovery on Monday: Trump also pressured the Director of the National Security Agency Michael Rogers and director of the National Intelligence Society Daniel Coat to publicly object any association between his team and Russia.
Both officials rejected Trump's request. Additionally, New York Time recently reported that Trump at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergei Kislyak admitted that he had fired Comey's "madman" to get rid of "high pressure" for the FBI investigation.
