Senior Russian Officials Discussed How to Use Trump’s Top Advisors to Influence Him

‘Some Russians Boasted About How Well They Knew Mr. Flynn’

Last summer U.S. intelligence operatives caught senior Russian officials discussing how to use Donald Trump‘s top advisors to influence him. The New York Times Wednesday evening reports the revelation was so alarming the reports were given to the FBI, and suggests the news may have been what prompted the Bureau to open its counter intelligence investigation into Trump, his campaign, and the Russians.

“American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence,” the Times reports.

Trump campaign chairman at the time, Paul Manafort, and Mike Flynn, a top Trump advisor, were the officials American spies identified.

“Both men had indirect ties to Russian officials, who appeared confident that each could be used to help shape Mr. Trump’s opinions on Russia,” the Times adds. “Some Russians boasted about how well they knew Mr. Flynn. Others discussed leveraging their ties to Viktor F. Yanukovych, the deposed president of Ukraine living in exile in Russia, who at one time had worked closely with Mr. Manafort.”

The New York Times report dovetails with a CNN report late last week that revealed, “Russian officials bragged in conversations during the presidential campaign that they had cultivated a strong relationship with former Trump adviser retired Gen. Michael Flynn and believed they could use him to influence Donald Trump and his team, sources told CNN.”

The conversations deeply concerned US intelligence officials, some of whom acted on their own to limit how much sensitive information they shared with Flynn, who was tapped to become Trump’s national security adviser, current and former governments officials said. 

“This was a five-alarm fire from early on,” one former Obama administration official said, “the way the Russians were talking about him.” Another former administration official said Flynn was viewed as a potential national security problem.

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