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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/13/british-spies-first-to-spot-trump-team-links-russia
GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious “interactions” between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, a source close to UK intelligence said. This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added.
Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump’s inner circle and Russians, sources said.
The European countries that passed on electronic intelligence – known as sigint – included Germany, Estonia and Poland. Australia, a member of the “Five Eyes” spying alliance that also includes the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, also relayed material, one source said.
Another source suggested the Dutch and the French spy agency, the General Directorate for External Security or DGSE, were contributors.
So while Americans can't spy on other Americans, American allies can spy on Americans and then share information with their American counterpart agencies. Brennan, Comey and NSA might have came into this issue in July 2016, but the rest of the world was seemingly very aware of it in late 2015.
One source called the British eavesdropping agency the “principal whistleblower”.
The Guardian has been told the FBI and the CIA were slow to appreciate the extensive nature of contacts between Trump’s team and Moscow ahead of the US election. This was in part due to US law that prohibits US agencies from examining the private communications of American citizens without warrants. “They are trained not to do this,” the source stressed.
“It looks like the [US] agencies were asleep,” the source added. “They [the European agencies] were saying: ‘There are contacts going on between people close to Mr Trump and people we believe are Russian intelligence agents. You should be wary of this.’
“The message was: ‘Watch out. There’s something not right here.’”
According to one account, GCHQ’s then head, Robert Hannigan, passed material in summer 2016 to the CIA chief, John Brennan. The matter was deemed so sensitive it was handled at “director level”. After an initially slow start, Brennan used GCHQ information and intelligence from other partners to launch a major inter-agency investigation.
This lead to the "Gang of 8" briefing where Brennan laid it out to leadership of House and Senate in both parties, the highest level of clearance equal to presidential briefings. McConnell blocked any news of this from going public saying he'd raise an epic stink about it the agencies interfering with the election. McConnell was happy as a pig in shit when Comey released the Huma Emails memo a week out of course though. McConnell was of course rewarded with his wife given the $1T Infrastructure spending purse strings, and got his SCOTUS blockade rewarded. Party before Country for McConnell.
Given the rest of the world was on to Trump-Russia in late 2015, that is primary election season. Rubio has claimed all along that his campaign was targeted by the Russians as well. So this is bigger than just Trump vs Hillary or GOP vs Dems now. Or at least it should be.
GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious “interactions” between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, a source close to UK intelligence said. This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added.
Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump’s inner circle and Russians, sources said.
The European countries that passed on electronic intelligence – known as sigint – included Germany, Estonia and Poland. Australia, a member of the “Five Eyes” spying alliance that also includes the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, also relayed material, one source said.
Another source suggested the Dutch and the French spy agency, the General Directorate for External Security or DGSE, were contributors.
One source called the British eavesdropping agency the “principal whistleblower”.
The Guardian has been told the FBI and the CIA were slow to appreciate the extensive nature of contacts between Trump’s team and Moscow ahead of the US election. This was in part due to US law that prohibits US agencies from examining the private communications of American citizens without warrants. “They are trained not to do this,” the source stressed.
“It looks like the [US] agencies were asleep,” the source added. “They [the European agencies] were saying: ‘There are contacts going on between people close to Mr Trump and people we believe are Russian intelligence agents. You should be wary of this.’
“The message was: ‘Watch out. There’s something not right here.’”
According to one account, GCHQ’s then head, Robert Hannigan, passed material in summer 2016 to the CIA chief, John Brennan. The matter was deemed so sensitive it was handled at “director level”. After an initially slow start, Brennan used GCHQ information and intelligence from other partners to launch a major inter-agency investigation.
This lead to the "Gang of 8" briefing where Brennan laid it out to leadership of House and Senate in both parties, the highest level of clearance equal to presidential briefings. McConnell blocked any news of this from going public saying he'd raise an epic stink about it the agencies interfering with the election. McConnell was happy as a pig in shit when Comey released the Huma Emails memo a week out of course though. McConnell was of course rewarded with his wife given the $1T Infrastructure spending purse strings, and got his SCOTUS blockade rewarded. Party before Country for McConnell.
As WikiLeaks published emails stolen from the Democratic national committee, US agencies began picking up conversations in which Russians were discussing contacts with Trump associates, the paper said.
European allies were supplying information about people close to Trump meeting with Russians in Britain, the Netherlands and in other countries, the Times said.
Trump has publicly stated that he hates using computers and much rather uses human couriers with sensitive information. He has shown this to be the case during his Presidency already. Is there a level of deniability built in? Were they official campaign staffers, or are we talking arms length types like Erik Prince and Roger Stone, and guys we never would have heard of.European allies were supplying information about people close to Trump meeting with Russians in Britain, the Netherlands and in other countries, the Times said.
One source suggested the official investigation was making progress. “They now have specific concrete and corroborative evidence of collusion,” the source said. “This is between people in the Trump campaign and agents of [Russian] influence relating to the use of hacked material.”
I believe Sherdog, if it were a person, would say hearing this - Huge if true.
Given the rest of the world was on to Trump-Russia in late 2015, that is primary election season. Rubio has claimed all along that his campaign was targeted by the Russians as well. So this is bigger than just Trump vs Hillary or GOP vs Dems now. Or at least it should be.
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