As reported by four current and former American officials members of Donald Trump's presidential campaign and other Trump associates had multiple contacts with senior Russian Intelligence officials in the year before the election. On the Russian side the contacts included not only people from secret service but also members of the government outside of the intelligence services.
Game of intelligence
American law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications at around the same time as they were discovering evidence that Russia was hacking into the Democratic National Committee to try to tamper the presidential election.
The intelligence agencies tried to find out whether Trump's campaign and Russia's hacking efforts were coordinated actions. So far no evidecne of such cooperation was seen, according to the interviewed officials. However the amount of the intercepted contact alarmed American intelligence.
The members of Donald Trump's presidential campaign and other Trump associates were not the only people from Trump's environment who had connections with the Russians. It seems that the Michael Flynn's resignation was just a tip of the iceberg. This migt be a difficult presidency for Donald Trump who is already growing tired with his office.
Russian sympathy
It is no secret that Donald Trump has a tendency to speak glowingly about Russian president Vladimir V.
Putin. During one of the campaign event held last summer Donald Trump said that he wished Russian intelligence services had stolen emails from Hillary Clinton's mailbox and would make them public.
What is more, according to the officials, one of the advisers cought on the calls was Paul Manafort. He was Trump's campaign chairman for several months and had also worked as a political consultant in Ukraine.
The call logs and intercepted communications are just a part of a bigger amassment of information sifting through by the F.B.I. as it investigates the connections between Donald Trump's associates and the Russian government. As a part of this inquiry the F.B.I. has obtained banking and travel reports as well as it continues the interviews.
