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Russian government officials discussed having potentially “derogatory” information about Donald Trump and some of his top aides during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to conversations intercepted by U.S. intelligence.
The newly reported detail in the ongoing Russia hacking investigation comes from two former intelligence officials and a congressional source, CNN reports.
One of the sources, CNN reports, says that the information is “financial in nature” and said the discussion “centered on whether the Russians had leverage over Trump’s inner circle.” The source added that Russians believed “they had the ability to influence the administration through the derogatory information.”
The sources do, however, caution that the Russian discussions could have been “exaggerated or even made up” as part of a disinformation campaign orchestrated by the Russians during the election. The information gathered in the Russia investigation has already shed light on the fact that hackers attempted to influence the election — even if their claims were deliberately false.
Specific names of Trump’s associates involved in the reported “derogatory” information remain masked, though CNN reports the conversations focused on the Trump campaign team.
“The Russians could be overstating their belief to influence,” said one of the sources.
A White House spokesman said: “This is yet another round of false and unverified claims made by anonymous sources to smear the President. The reality is, a review of the President’s income from the last ten years showed he had virtually no financial ties at all. There appears to be no limit to which the President’s political opponents will go to perpetuate this false narrative, including illegally leaking classified material. All this does is play into the hands of our adversaries and put our country at risk.”
The FBI denied to comment on the new report.
