British intelligence passed Trump associates' communications with Russians on to US counterparts
Washington (CNN)British
and other European intelligence agencies intercepted communications
between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and other
Russian individuals during the campaign and passed on those
communications to their US counterparts, US congressional and law
enforcement and US and European intelligence sources tell CNN.
The
communications were captured during routine surveillance of Russian
officials and other Russians known to western intelligence. British and
European intelligence agencies, including GCHQ, the British intelligence
agency responsible for communications surveillance, were not
proactively targeting members of the Trump team but rather picked up
these communications during what's known as "incidental collection,"
these sources tell CNN.
The
European intelligence agencies detected multiple communications over
several months between the Trump associates and Russian individuals --
and passed on that intelligence to the US. The US and Britain are part
of the so-called "Five Eyes" agreement (along with Canada, Australia and
New Zealand), which calls for open sharing among member nations of a
broad range of intelligence.
The
communications are likely to be scrutinized as part of the Senate
Intelligence Committee's investigation into Russia's efforts to meddle
in the 2016 presidential election.
"If
foreign intelligence agencies share information with US intelligence,
and it's relevant to the investigation, then of course the intelligence
committee will look at it," a source close to the Senate investigation
told CNN.
The Guardian reported earlier Thursday that British alerted US Intel of such contacts.
GCHQ's
surveillance became politically sensitive when Trump -- citing an
uncorroborated Fox News report -- claimed that Britain had tapped his
phones in Trump Tower at former President Barack Obama's behest.
White
House press secretary Sean Spicer repeated Trump's claim and cited Fox
News' reporting about GCHQ's surveillance to reporters in the briefing
room. "Judge Andrew Napolitano made the following statement, quote,
'Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama
went outside the chain of command (to spy on Trump). He didn't use the
NSA, he didn't use the CIA ... he used GCHQ,'" Spicer told journalists.
Those
comments angered British officials. After Spicer's remarks, White House
officials told CNN British ambassador to the US Kim Darroch and Sir
Mark Lyall Grant, national security adviser to Prime Minister Theresa
May, "expressed their concerns to Spicer and Trump national security
adviser H.R. McMaster" in two separate conversations.
The
GCHQ also issued a statement saying: "Recent allegations made by media
commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct
'wire tapping' against the then President-elect are nonsense. They are
utterly ridiculous and should be ignored."
Last
month, Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-North Carolina,
said that "based on the information available to us, we see no
indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any
element of the United States government either before or after Election
Day 2016."
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