The CIA told senior lawmakers in classified briefings last summer that it had information indicating that Russia was working to help elect then-Republican Party candidate Donald Trump president, a finding that did not emerge publicly until after Trump’s victory months later, former government officials say.
The briefings indicate that intelligence officials had evidence of Russia’s intentions to help Trump much earlier in the presidential campaign than previously thought.
The briefings also reveal a critical split last summer between the CIA and counterparts at the FBI, where a number of senior officials continued to believe through last fall that Russia’s cyberattacks were aimed primarily at disrupting the US’ political system and not at getting Trump elected, according to interviews.
The former officials said that in late August, then-CIA director John Brennan was so concerned about increasing evidence of Russia’s election meddling that he began a series of urgent, individual briefings for eight top members of Congress.
It is unclear what new intelligence might have prompted the classified briefings.
However, with concerns growing both internally and publicly at the time about a significant Russian breach of the Democratic National Committee, the CIA began seeing signs of possible connections to the Trump campaign, the officials said.
By the campaign’s final weeks, Congress and the intelligence agencies were racing to understand the scope of the Russia threat.
In an Aug. 25 briefing for US Senator Harry Reid, then the Senate’s top Democrat, Brennan indicated that Russia’s hackings appeared aimed at helping Trump win the election, according to two former officials with knowledge of the briefing.
The officials said Brennan also indicated that unnamed Trump advisers might be working with the Russians to interfere in the election.
The FBI and two congressional committees are investigating that claim, focusing on possible communications and financial dealings between Russian affiliates and a handful of former Trump advisers. No proof of collusion has emerged publicly.
Trump has rejected any suggestion of a Russian connection as “ridiculous” and “fake news.”
The CIA and the FBI declined to comment for this article, as did Brennan and senior lawmakers who were part of the summer briefings.
In the August briefing for Reid, the two former officials said, Brennan indicated that the CIA, focused on foreign intelligence, was limited in its legal ability to investigate possible connections to Trump.
The officials said Brennan told Reid that the FBI, which is in charge of domestic intelligence, would have to lead the way.
Days later, Reid wrote to FBI Director James Comey. Without mentioning the CIA briefing, Reid told Comey that he had “recently become concerned” that Russia’s interference was “more extensive than widely known.”
In his letter, the senator cited what he called mounting evidence “of a direct connection between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign” and said it was crucial for the FBI to “use every resource available” to investigate.
Unknown to Reid, the FBI had already opened a counterintelligence inquiry a month before, to examine possible links between Russia and people tied to the Trump campaign, but its existence was kept secret even from members of Congress.
However, as the election approached and new batches of hacked Democratic emails poured out, some FBI officials began to change their view about Russia’s intentions and eventually came to believe, as the CIA had months earlier, that Moscow was trying to help get Trump elected, officials said.
However, it was not until early December, a month after the election, that it became publicly known in news reports that the CIA had concluded that Moscow’s motivation was to get Trump elected.
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