Former CIA Director Testifies About Concerns Russia Successfully Recruited Trump Campaign Aides Last Year

May 24th, 2017

Awake Goy

Former CIA Director Testifies About Concerns Russia Successfully Recruited Trump Campaign Aides Last Year

Susanne Posel ,Chief Editor Occupy Corporatism | Host of Hardline Radio Show

John Brennan, former director of the CIA told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that he had concerns Trump campaign members had been successfully recruited to assist in their manipulation of last year’s election.

Brennan said: “I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign that I was concerned about because of known Russian efforts to suborn such individuals. And it raised questions in my mind again whether or not the Russians were able to gain the cooperation of those individuals.”

Because of the “number of the contacts that the Russians had with US persons” Brennan was “worried”. He did not know if evidence of collusion exists, but explained: “I know that there was a sufficient basis of information and intelligence that required further investigation by the bureau to determine whether or not US persons were actively conspiring and colluding with Russian officials.”

The former CIA director’s concerns fall in line with recent reports that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and other Trump campaign associates had at least 18 phone calls with Russian officials during last year’s election cycle.

Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak took an estimated 6 (previously unknown) calls from Flynn. Those conversations became more frequent after November 8th, creating a back channel between Putin and Trump. They began in April of 2016.

Talks during the campaign centered on “a pragmatic, business-style approach and stressed to Trump associates that they could make deals by focusing on common economic and other interests and leaving contentious issues aside.”

Beyond the phone calls, emails and text messages between Kislyak and Trump’s campaign advisers. This meant the 2 could speak through their consorts without tipping off US intelligence agencies.

For example, Viktor Medvedchuk, a close confidant of Putin (who is godfather to Medvedchuck’s daughter) is suspected of speaking with Trump’s campaign associates on behalf of Putin.

Undisclosed communications between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials “form part of the record now being reviewed by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the US presidential election and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia.”

The Trump camp knew about these contacts. In fact, Donald McGahn, White House counsel, was told on January 4th that the FBI was looking into Flynn and his propaganda work for Turkey. Now a grand jury in Virginia has issued subpoenas to Flynn’s business associates, demanding records pertaining to Flynn.

Along with the injury, the House Oversight Committee has requested records of Flynn’s trip to Russia in 2015 for which he was paid to speak at an event hosted by RT (the Kremlin-funded media outlet). Flynn was seated next to Putin during the dinner.

Speaking on “Meet The Press”, Congressman Adam Schiff, co-chair of the House Intelligence Committee (HIC) said that there is “circumstantial evidence of collusion” between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 election to ensure that a certain candidate won the race.

Responding to Chuck Todd’s comment that former director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, made several weeks ago that there was not evidence that a collusion existed, Schiff said: “I was surprised to see Director Clapper say that because I don’t think you can make that claim categorically as he did. I would characterize it this way at the outset of the investigation: There is circumstantial evidence of collusion. There is direct evidence, I think, of deception and that’s where we begin the investigation.”

Schiff added: “There is certainly enough for us to conduct an investigation. The American people have a right to know and in order to defend ourselves, we need to know whether the circumstantial evidence of collusion and direct evidence of deception is indicative of more.”

Explaining the reasons why Russia would help Trump get elected, Schiff said that “we are in a global war of ideas” that pits “authoritarianism” against “democracy, and Putin is very much at the vanguard of that autocratic movement.”

Most recently, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn retroactively registered as a foreign agent for the Turkish government; which means Flynn was paid to lobby for Turkish President Erdogon while working for the Trump campaign, through his 24 days as a part of the Trump administration, and for all intents and purposes still continues to present day.

But Flynn also received over $33,750 from the Kremlin via their state-funded propaganda outlet, Russia Today. Flynn was a paid to speak at an event for RT in December of 2015.

During the now infamous “Obama tapped by wires” tweet investigation, it was revealed that suspicious activity took place during the campaign between a Trump Organization computer server located in Trump Tower and a Russian oligarch owned bank named Alfa Bank.

Alfa Bank pinged the Trump Organization server 2,800 times from May to September of 2016 – that is 1 ping very hour for 4 months straight. The Russian owned bank claims it was set up by hackers to make it appear that they were in contact with the Trump Organization after previously dismissing the evidence as a hoax.

Then there are the mysterious trips to Russia taken by Trump campaign staff during the election. Carter Page, a former adviser to the Trump campaign, was sent to Russia on a trip sanctioned and paid for by the campaign via donation monies.

Page gave a speech while in Moscow on the campaign’s dime, but officially the campaign said Page was in Russia “in a private capacity”.

In addition, Flynn, Jeff Sessions and even Trump himself all met with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign. Flynn spoke with Kislyak about President Obama’s sanctions on Russia and how the Trump administration would lift them once in power.

Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation hearing about having met with Kislyak twice during the campaign, and ended up having to recuse himself from any investigations into Trump’s connections with Russia that the Department of Justice conducts in the future or is currently working on.