At least nine people in *****'s orbit had contact with Russians during campaign and transition
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A detailed must-read on the contacts between Trump associates & Russians, via @PostRoz @thamburger @CarolLeonnig
At least nine people in Trumps orbit had contact with Russians during campaign and transition
By Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger and Carol D. Leonnig November 5 at 10:50 PM
After questions emerged about whether campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page had ties to Russia, President Trump called him a very low-level member of a committee and said that I dont think Ive ever spoken to him.
When it was revealed that his son met with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower, the president told reporters that zero happened from the meeting and that the press made a very big deal over something that really a lot of people would do.
And, last week, with the revelation that adviser George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about his efforts to arrange meetings between Moscow and the Trump campaign, the president derided him as a low-level volunteer.
While Trump has sought to dismiss these Russia ties as insignificant, or characterized the people involved in them as peripheral figures, it has now become clear that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III views at least some of them as important pieces of his sprawling investigation of Russian meddling in last years presidential campaign.
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Alice Crites, Craig Timberg, Greg Miller and Devlin Barrett in Washington and James McAuley in Paris contributed to this report.
Rosalind Helderman is a political enterprise and investigations reporter for the Washington Post. Follow @PostRoz
Tom Hamburger covers the intersection of money and politics for The Washington Post. Follow @thamburger
Carol Leonnig is an investigative reporter at The Washington Post. Follow @CarolLeonnig