![]() The matter was deemed so sensitive it was handled at “director level”. Photograph: Ben Birchall/ReutersĪccording to one account, GCHQ’s then head, Robert Hannigan, passed material in summer 2016 to the CIA chief, John Brennan. Robert Hannigan delivering a speech at GCHQ in Cheltenham in 2015. “They were saying: ‘There are contacts going on between people close to Mr Trump and people we believe are Russian intelligence agents. ![]() “It looks like the agencies were asleep,” the source added. “They are trained not to do this,” the source stressed. This was in part due to US law that prohibits US agencies from examining the private communications of American citizens without warrants. The Guardian has been told the FBI and the CIA were slow to appreciate the extensive nature of contacts between Trump’s team and Moscow ahead of the US election. One source called the British eavesdropping agency the “principal whistleblower”. Instead both US and UK intelligence sources acknowledge that GCHQ played an early, prominent role in kickstarting the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation, which began in late July 2016. “They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored,” a spokesperson for GCHQ said. The agency described the allegations first made by a former judge turned media commentator, Andrew Napolitano, as “nonsense”. The claims prompted an extremely unusual rebuke from GCHQ, which generally refrains from commenting on all intelligence matters. Fox later distanced itself from the report. Spicer cited an unsubstantiated report on Fox News. The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, claimed the “British spying agency” GCHQ had carried out the bugging. Sean Spicer: Trump stands by ‘wiretap’ claim Guardian In March Trump tweeted that Barack Obama had illegally “wiretapped” him in Trump Tower. The issue of GCHQ’s role in the FBI’s ongoing investigation into possible cooperation between the Trump campaign and Moscow is highly sensitive. ![]() Over several months, different agencies targeting the same people began to see a pattern of connections that were flagged to intelligence officials in the US. The alleged conversations were picked up by chance as part of routine surveillance of Russian intelligence assets. It is understood that GCHQ was at no point carrying out a targeted operation against Trump or his team or proactively seeking information. Australia, a member of the “Five Eyes” spying alliance that also includes the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, also relayed material, one source said.Īnother source suggested the Dutch and the French spy agency, the General Directorate for External Security or DGSE, were contributors. The European countries that passed on electronic intelligence – known as sigint – included Germany, Estonia and Poland. Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump’s inner circle and Russians, sources said. ![]()
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