European intelligence agencies, including British entities, captured Russian officials and citizens communicating with Donald Trump’s campaign during the election, and forwarded those documents to U.S. spy agencies, according to a report published Thursday afternoon.
The nations who picked up conversations between Trump’s associates and the Russians said the focus of their efforts was to capture information on Russia, not the presidential candidate, who instead was mixed up in “incidental collection.”
Talks between various Trump employees and Russians took place over several months, though the exact timeline in this new report has not been disclosed.
European nations shared the findings with the U.S. as part of the “Five Eyes” agreement, which mandates Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and Britain openly share national security intelligence.
The new information is expected to be looked over by the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to a source who spoke with CNN.
U.S. and British intelligence agencies’ corroboration became a tricky topic for the Trump administration earlier this year after a Fox News contributor, Judge Andrew Napolitano, went on air and said former President Barack Obama attempted to spy on Trump by using British intel agency GCHQ to do its dirty work.
“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,” GCHQ said in a follow-up statement regarding Trump’s Twitter charges that Obama had phone tapped his campaign headquarters.
