Members of President Donald Trump’s campaign and transition team had more than 100 contacts with Russian-linked officials, according to a new report.
The milestone illustrates the deep ties between members of Trump’s circle and the Kremlin.
The findings, tracked by the Center for American Progress and its Moscow Project, come amid reports that special counsel Robert Mueller is nearing the conclusion of the two-year investigation into Russian collusion in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by Trump.
“This wasn’t just one email or call, or one this or that,” said Talia Dessel, a research analyst for the left-leaning organization. “Over 100 contacts is really significant because you don’t just have 100 contacts with a foreign power if there’s nothing going on there.”
The number of contacts was raised to 101 this week after it was reported that Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, a former campaign aide, shared polling data with Manafort’s former Russian business partner Konstantin Kilimnik.
Dessel noted the group’s list of contacts is on the “conservative” end and the “very minimum amount of contacts” between Russian-linked officials and those within the Trump campaign and transition.
Those within Trump’s team who had contacts with Russian-linked officials include Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, former Trump adviser Roger Stone, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump.
Dessel said the group omitted many contacts that were seen as “intermediaries” between the members of Trump’s team and Russian-linked officials, which would include the messages between Roger Stone and WikiLeaks, which is noted as being described by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as a “hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.”
Russia’s role in the 2016 election and ties between the president and the Kremlin are all but certain to remain constant themes of 2019 with a new Democratic-led House that now has subpoena and investigative powers.
SIXTEEN KEY PLAYERS:
1. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort attended the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a group of Russians who were said to have dirt on Hillary Clinton. He also met with and emailed Konstantin Kilimnik, his Russian business associate who is suspected of having ties to Russian intelligence, according to court records.
2. Senior Trump campaign official Rick Gates was also in communication during the campaign with Kilimnik, who has suspected ties to Russian intelligence, according to court records.
3. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn exchanged phone calls and text messages with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the Trump transition. He also was with White House senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner when they met Kislyak in Trump Tower during the transition.
4. Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. attended the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower. Around that time, he had at least three phone calls with Emin Agalarov, the Russian pop star who helped arrange the meeting. Trump Jr. also was briefly introduced to Russian banker Alexander Torshin at a dinner during the National Rifle Association convention. Federal prosecutors said in 2018 that Torshin was the handler of alleged Russian spy Maria Butina.
5. White House senior adviser Jared Kushner also attended the Trump Tower meeting. During the transition, he met Kislyak and Russian state banker Sergey Gorkov.
6. Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos met a few times with Kremlin-connected professor Joseph Mifsud and a Russian woman who falsely claimed to be Vladimir Putin’s niece. He was also in touch with Ivan Timofeev, a Russian foreign policy analyst.
7. Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page met Kislyak during the Republican convention. He also met Russian lawmakers and an executive from the Kremlin-run oil company Rosneft during trips to Russia in July and December 2016.
8. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions had two meetings with Kislyak during the campaign. The first was on the sidelines of the Republican convention. The second was in his Senate office in Washington in September 2016.
9. Trump campaign official JD Gordon also met Kislyak during the Republican National Convention. He says he spoke with Kislyak at two separate events.
10. Former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone met a Russian man in May 2016 who called himself Henry Greenberg and offered dirt on Clinton for $2 million. Stone also exchanged private Twitter messages with Russian intelligence operatives posing as the hacker Guccifer 2.0.
11. Former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo was also in touch with the Russian man who went by Hank Greenberg. Caputo said he helped arrange Greenbeg’s meeting with Stone.
12. Trump associate Erik Prince met with Russian state banker Kirill Dmitriev during a controversial January 2017 trip to the Seychelles. Prince told Congress that they discussed business.
13. White House official Avi Berkowitz, who has served as Kushner’s personal assistant, met with Kislyak during the Trump transition.
14. Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen was in touch with at least two Russian companies during the campaign that wanted to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. He had a 20-minute phone call with someone from the office of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov about the project, according to court filings. And he spoke to a Russian man who claimed to have influential connections and offered “political synergy” with the Trump campaign, according to court filings.
15. White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump was in contact with the wife of the Russian who offered “synergy” to Cohen. Her spokesman confirmed that she received an email and passed it along to Cohen.
16. Trump business associate Felix Sater, who previously worked with Trump on real estate deals, was in touch with Russians as he worked with Cohen on the Trump Tower Moscow project.