FBI Warned Trump in Summer of 2016 Russia Would Try to Infiltrate His Campaign, but He Apparently Ignored Them

‘Trump Team Had Contacts With Russians Throughout the Campaign’

In the summer of 2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was warned that Russia would attempt to infiltrate and spy on his campaign, but it does not appear Trump or his campaign took any steps to notify the FBI about any outreach from Russia.

“The warning came in the form of a high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials,” NBC News, in an exclusive, citing “multiple government officials,” reports. 

“A similar briefing was given to Hillary Clinton, they added. They said the briefings, which are commonly provided to presidential nominees, were designed to educate the candidates and their top aides about potential threats from foreign spies.”

“The candidates were urged to alert the FBI about any suspicious overtures to their campaigns, the officials said,” but that did not occur, as evidenced by the meeting between a Russia lawyer tied to the Kremlin, Donald Trump Jr., Reince Priebus, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and others. 

The campaign should have notified the FBI as soon as the email outreach was received, but instead, Trump Jr. and others not only took the meeting, expecting to receive “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, but did not notify the FBI of the meeting.

“The Trump team had contacts with Russians throughout the campaign,” NBC reports.

It also appears Trump and the campaign were aware of Mike Flynn’s relationship with Russia, but ignored that as well. 

“Mr. Flynn was an early and important adviser to Mr. Trump, an architect of Mr. Trump’s populist ‘America first’ platform and an advocate of closer ties with Russia,” The New York Times reported last month. “His ties to Russia predated the campaign — he sat with President Vladimir V. Putin at a 2015 event in Moscow — and he was a point person on the transition team for dealing with Russia.”

“Trump was ‘briefed and warned’ at the session about potential espionage threats from Russia, two former law enforcement officials familiar with the sessions told NBC News. A source close to the White House said their position is that Trump was unaware of the contacts between his campaign and Russians,” NBC News adds.

Former FBI counterintelligence agent and supervisor Frank Montoya told NBC News that the Trump would have been told, “If you see these kinds of contacts please let us know about them so we can keep you updated on the threat picture.”

But in July of 2016 the FBI knew Russia was in contact with members of the Trump team, and opened an investigation, one it did not disclose until well after the election.

By the time of the warning in late July or August, at least seven Trump campaign officials had been in contact with Russians or people linked to Russia, according to public reports. There is no public evidence that the campaign reported any of that to the FBI.

Montoya suggests that after a warning, if the Bureau is aware of communications between the Trump team and Russia, and does not disclose them to the FBI, it becomes evidence.

“If I give you a defensive briefing and the illicit behavior continues, I’m not going to just scratch my head over that, especially if I see continued interference,” Montoya said. “If we’re telling these guys stuff and they are not acting on it, then we’re going to keep that as evidence.”

The Trump White House responded to NBC News in typical Trump team fashion.

“That the Republican and Democrat nominee for President received a standardized briefing on counter-intelligence is hardly a news story,” said Raj Shah, a White House spokesman. “That NBC News hears about the contents of this classified conversation due to an inappropriate leak is a news story.”

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