Russians interacted with at least 14 Trump associates during campaign and transition

The Russian Ambassador. A Deputy Prime Minister. A pop star, a weightlifter, a lawyer, a veteran of the Soviet Army claimed to have links with the intelligence services.

Time and time again, during Donald Trump's 18-month presidential campaign, Russian citizens made contact with his immediate family. and friends, as well as numbers on the periphery of its orbit.

Some have offered to help his campaign and his real estate business. Some have offered dirt to his Democratic opponent. Time and time again, Russian nationals have suggested that Trump hold a peace-making meeting with Vladimir Putin – and offered to organize such a summit.

In all, the Russians traded with at least 14 Trump associates during the campaign and presidential transition, public recordings and interviews. "It's extremely unusual," said Michael McFaul, Russia's ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama. "The number of contacts and the nature of the contacts are extraordinary."

[Mueller flashes some cards in Russia probe, but hides his hand]

The special advocate, Robert S. Mueller III, gradually unveiling the evidence that he has gathered since his appointment in May 2017, he has yet to show the dozens of d & # s 39, interactions between the people of Trump's orbit and the Russians resulted in a specific coordination between his presidential campaign and Russia.

But the increasing number of communications disclosed occurred in the context of "The Russian government's sustained efforts to interfere in the US presidential election" wrote the prosecutors of Mueller in a document filed last week.

The special council documents also revealed moments when Russia seemed to be taking Trump's bearings. In July 2016, the then GOP party candidate had said at a press conference: "Russia, if you listen, I hope you can find the 30,000 missing emails," referring to messages that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton had removed from a private account. According to court documents, the Russians made their first efforts to penetrate the servers used by Clinton's personal office.

As Americans began to understand the fact that a hostile foreign power was taking active steps to shape the outcome of the race, Trump and his advisers claimed that they had no contact with Russia.

Two days after his election to the presidency, a senior Kremlin official made a sensation by saying that his aides were in contact with the Russian government before the elections.

"I'm not saying that they all talk, but a large number of them have supported contacts with Russian representatives," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in a statement. the Interfax news agency on November 10, 2016.

refusals. Hope Hicks, then Trump's top spokesperson, responded, "It never happened. There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign. "

After Trump took office in February 2017, he reiterated the denial. "No. No one I know," said the president to the press when he was asked about contacts with Russia. "I have nothing to do with Russia. from my acquaintance, no one with whom I deal does it. "

It is now clear that this was not true.

Trump's eldest children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump exchanged with Russians who were proposing to help the candidate

campaign advisor to Jared Kushner, chief advisor to the Trump campaign, his personal lawyer Michael Cohen and his longest-serving president. The political advisor in place, Roger Stone, also had contacts with Russian nationals.

Veterans of who had already made calls to the White House, stated that it was extremely unusual to play with representatives of a foreign opponent.

"It's different in kind from anything I've ever heard of before," said Trevor Potter, General Counsel for Senator John McCain's Presidential Campaign in 2008 Mr. McCain, he said, traveled the world as a member of the Senate, but his contacts with representatives of foreign governments generally took place in consultation with the Department of State and dealt with issues policy – not on personal matters or its own electoral concerns.

The number of known interactions has increased since last year, when The Washington Post established that at least nine Trump associates had had contact with Russians during the campaign or presidential transition.

At the time, White House lawyer Ty Cobb said, "I think the American public can fully understand that these people are isolated, obviously. disconnected events, few enough for a presidential campaign. "

Trump's lawyer, Jay Sekulow, declined to comment on Sunday.

The President has repeated many times He added that his relatives were coordinating their activities with Russia by exchanging frequent tweets on the slogan "NO COLLUSION!"

New court documents filed by Mueller's prosecutors over the last two weeks have revealed that Russia's outreach was greater than previously known.

In November 2015. Cohen met with a Russian national who claimed to be a "trusted person" in the Russian Federation and who offered the campaign "political synergy" and "synergy at the governmental level", according to a note. filed by the special counsel on Friday.

[New Mueller filing says Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen was in touch with a Russian seeking ‘political synergy’ with campaign]

Prosecutors have repeatedly written that the Russian national was proposing a meeting between Trump and Putin, saying that an assembly between Both men could have a "phenomenal" impact because there is "no greater guarantee in any project" than Putin's support.

The details of the episode correspond to descriptions of an interaction at the time between Cohen and Dmitry Klokov, a well-connected Russian athlete, reported for the first time by BuzzFeed News.

An Olymp The weightlifter turned entrepreneur, Klokov sells training equipment, clothing and fitness programs worldwide from his Moscow base.

Interviewed Saturday on an Instagram account of his communications with Cohen, Klokov responded with three bursts of laughter. emoji and the words: "It's nonsense."

The wife of Klokov contacted Ivanka Trump in October 2015, claiming that she had links with the Russian government and that She could help her father build a Trump tower in Moscow, a project that he had long been looking for, according to a person familiar with the interaction.

[‘We will be in Moscow’: The story of Trump’s 30-year quest to expand his brand to Russia]

Ivanka Trump did not know the woman but gave her contact information to Cohen, who later made contact with Klokov, said the people who knew the trade well.

Conversation, prosecutors said that Cohen had not convened meeting with the Russian national because he thought he already had relations with the Russian government through a trading partner [19659041] This partner, a developer born in Russia Felix Sater, said in an interview that he did not know that Cohen had had contact with Klokov.

Cohen, who had been working for Trump for a decade, had recommended his candidacy for the presidency for years before the celebrity giant launched his candidacy in 2015 focused on his boss's relationship with Russia in the early days in the countryside.

In September 2015, Cohen told Sean Hannity during a radio appearance of the Fox News program host that there was a "better than likely" chance that Tump and Putin meet while Putin was in New York for the annual meeting of the then UN General Assembly.

"People want to meet Donald Trump. They want to know Donald Trump, "Cohen told Hannity.

Last week, prosecutors revealed that Cohen had confessed to conferring on Trump the idea" before attempting to measure the interest of the Russia for such a meeting. "

Mueller said that Cohen had corrected past inaccuracies about" his contacts with the Russian government during the week of the UN General Assembly. " the Court did not provide any additional details about his contacts

The special council also revealed in recent weeks that Cohen had communicated with the Kremlin about efforts to build a trump tower in Moscow. phone with an assistant of Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, after asking Peskov to seek help from the government to advance the project.

Prosecutors have called the e real estate development – sued while Trump was campaigning for the Republican nomination – a "lucrative business opportunity" "That could have produced hundreds of millions for Trump's company, noting that the Russian government would probably need the Help from the Russian government to carry it out.

Mueller also indicated that his team had gathered evidence regarding Manafort's interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian. A veteran who worked for Manafort in the office of his political advisory firm in Kiev.

Mueller's team accused Manafort of having lied several times during interviews with investigators about his relations with Kilimnik, evaluated by the FBI as having links to services Russian intelligence. met Manafort twice during the campaign.

Details of alleged persons

The Post previously reported that Manafort had asked Kilimnik to make an offer of "private briefing" on the campaign to Oleg Deripaska, a prominent Russian businessman. of Putin. The spokeswoman for Deripaska stated that no such information session had taken place.

Some contacts were launched directly by the Russian government. Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak met with several Trump advisers, including Sen at the time. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), To the Republican National Convention. The Trump poster, Carter Page, said that he had been greeted by Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich after a speech in Moscow in July 2016.

Trump's relatives were seen twice offering detrimental information about Clinton, a particular enemy of Putin, whom he blamed for fomenting. she was protesting against her regime while she was secretary of state.

In June 2016, Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., met a Russian lawyer who, according to the information he had, would provide filth to Clinton. The meeting was organized by billionaire Moscow director Aras Agalarov and his star son of pop, Emin.

Participants at the Trump Tower rally, which also included Manafort and Kushner, told the lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya not providing any help. According to the transcripts of their testimony, several participants described to Congressional investigators the ardor that inspired him with the help of Russia,

Moreover, the Russians have repeatedly suggested that & # 39; 39, a meeting between Trump and Putin could be a good idea. 19659065] A few months after the Russian weightlifter had tackled the idea of ​​such a summit with Cohen, Ivan Timofeev, director of a Moscow-based think-tank linked to the Russian Foreign Ministry, discussed a Trump-Putin meeting with George Papadopoulos, Trump's foreign policy advisor

A London-based professor also established a link between Papadopoulos and a Russian woman that Trump's adviser considered Putin's niece .

Some of the interactions between Trump's associates and the Russians were low-level speculative discussions.

The people we are talking about are not the type to whom you talk about US-Russia relations, the future of the START treaty [Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] and so on. "But he added that the Russians would have taken note of the willingness of Trump's advisers to engage him."

"I think the Russians would maintain these contacts and would consider them as a means to establish relations that could be useful to Putin and his government. "

Anton Troianovski and Amie Ferris-Rotman in Moscow contributed to this report.