Trump campaign aides had repeated contact with Russian intelligence officials

Washington

PHONE records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contact with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former US officials.

US law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time that they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee (DNC), three of the officials said. The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election.