US President Donald Trump yesterday accused his own intelligence agencies of illegally feeding “conspiracy theories” to the media over his team’s alleged links with Russia.
“The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred. @MSNBC & @CNN are unwatchable. @foxandfriends is great!” the President wrote in an early morning post on Twitter.
“This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign [sic].
“Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?).Just like Russia.”
He went on to claim: “The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by ‘intelligence’ like candy. Very un-American!”
Trump also singled out a comment piece published by Bloomberg for praise, personally thanking the author for exposing the “very serious situation for USA”.
His remarks came as The New York Times on Tuesday reported that US intelligence agents intercepted calls showing that members of Trump’s campaign had repeated contacts with top Russian intelligence officials in the year preceding the November 8 presidential election, reported Independent.
US intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia had intervened in the electoral process at least in part to help Republican property tycoon Trump win.
KREMLIN DENIES REPORT
The Kremlin yesterday denied as “falsehoods and fabrications” the New York Times report.
“Don’t believe newspaper reports, it’s very difficult at the moment to differentiate them from falsehoods and fabrications,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a press conference.
Stressing that the sources quoted by the Times were anonymous, Peskov said “the time has perhaps come for someone to speak out openly about all of this.”
“If you don’t mind let’s wait and let’s not believe anonymous information, which is information based on no fact.”
Citing “four current and former American officials,” the Times report said that intercepted phone calls and phone records showed the repeated contacts with Moscow’s intelligence community.
The nature of the purported calls was not disclosed, reported AFP.
TRUMP WARNED ABOUT FLYNN
The White House admitted Tuesday that Trump was told three weeks ago that ousted national security advisor Michael Flynn may have misled colleagues about his Kremlin contacts.
The retired three-star general and former head of US defense intelligence initially denied discussing sanctions strategy with Russia’s ambassador Sergey Kislyak before taking office, a move that may have breached US law on negotiating with foreign powers.
Flynn was asked to resign on Monday, after what the White House said was an internal investigation that showed no wrongdoing but “eroded” trust.
Republicans and Democratic lawmakers have now called for an investigation into what occurred, although they differ sharply on the scope and powers.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren insisted that Trump “owes Americans a full account” of his campaign and administration’s dealings with Moscow.
The Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell said it was “highly likely” that Flynn would have to testify before an intelligence panel.
The Times also reported that the FBI had interviewed Flynn on his calls with the Russian diplomat days into his job.
The CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies have already investigated Moscow’s influence over the 2016 vote, concluding the Kremlin tried to sway it in Trump’s favour.
