Despite the Grand appearance of the President of America in Riyadh and his meeting with leaders of the Arab and Muslim world, and despite his visit to the Wailing Wall, known in history as the first visit of the Shrine by the U.S. President during his tenure, Donald trump failed to distract the Americans from the Russiagate scandal that haunts him and his advisers for months.
Among the latest developments in the series Russiagate — report Washington Post, in which, with reference to high-level officials reveals that trump personally asked the head of national intelligence Dan Coates (Dan Coats) and the head of the Agency for national security Michael Rogers (Michael S. Rogers) to declare that neither trump nor his campaign staff was not involved in the relationship with Moscow with the aim to hack e-mail of the leaders of the democratic party.
Coates has already appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on armed forces, which is headed by Republican Senator John McCain. From Coates immediately asked to clarify whether the truth is the fact that trump asked him to announce the “lack of communication” with the Russians. Coates replied that, because of his situation, he often talks with the President and cannot provide detailed information on the content of any of these contacts. What Coates did not deny the existence of the request from trump, angered administration officials who would like to see intelligence denies such a report from the media to suppress this story in the Bud. However, this did not happen.
On the other hand, the Congress appeared John Brennan, former head of the CIA, to tell — for the first time since he left the Agency — that during his work at the head of the administration, he feared that Moscow is working on the recruitment of a number of trump’s advisers and persons working in the headquarters of his campaign. Earlier, the US court found that one of trump’s advisers on foreign Affairs, Carter Bag, was recruited by Russian agents in new York.
Brennan, who answered questions from the Intelligence Committee, said that he “provided information and analytical reports revealing the existence of contacts and interaction between Russian officials and American nationals in the team trump during election campaign”. He also added that “this raises my concern, because we know Russia’s attempts to purchase these people as they are” and “everyone should understand that Russia is brazenly interfered in our presidential election in 2016, making it, despite our protests and firm and clear warning about the inadmissibility of such actions”.
Brennan, who presided at the CIA since 2013 and January of 2017, said that he has sent a clear warning to Moscow last summer, concerning any intervention into US presidential election, but Russia chose to ignore the warning.
Brennan said that on 4 August of 2016, he also had contact with the head of Russian intelligence to warn him about the above.
In this context, Brennan said that “I told him that all Americans, regardless of their political affiliation or orientation in the elections, followed by the freedom of choice of their leaders without any interference. American voters will be outraged by any interference in the voting process”.
Brennan mentioned that his companion denied any involvement by Russia, and said he would give the warning US President Vladimir Putin.
Regarding the recent criticism of trump on what he has revealed to the Russian Ambassador, Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov, secret the confidential information received from an ally, but Brennan said if the information is confirmed, the trump, “broke two rules. First, such confidential information shall not be disclosed to the ambassadors. Secondly, before you can share it with foreign allies, need to check that the source and its character has not been found.”
The white house, for its part, again denies the existence of any relationship between campaign trump and Moscow, emphasizing that the testimony of Brennan only confirm what they say about this case.
In a statement the White House stated that “the hearing confirms what we have been saying all along: despite investigations throughout the year, there is no evidence of collusion between Russia and the campaign of trump, as well as any evidence that the President has jeopardized any source or distributed intelligence.”
General Michael Flynn, the national security adviser, thanks to Trump, was forced to resign in February last year. Now he refused to appear before the Intelligence Committee in the Senate, which is conducting an investigation of a possible link trump with Russia. For this purpose, he sent a notice to Flynn with a request to provide all documents in its possession relating to foreign governments, including Russia. The Committee also asked Flynn to appear before him to testify, but the former General referred to the fifth amendment to the Constitution, which allows any citizen to give up — voluntarily — from providing any documents or any statements that could lead to his conviction.
Flynn’s position has drawn the IRE of the Committee. The Chairman, Republican Senator Michael bear, said he is considering all available means to force Flynn to provide documents and testimony, including the possibility of claims that Flynn “despise Congress,” having shown their unwillingness to cooperate. To force Flynn to co-operate, the Congress must have a court order, which is currently impossible to obtain in the absence of any formal requirements for Flynn or any of the officials of the trump.
