In the Obama administration's last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election and about possible contacts between associates of president-elect Donald Trump and Russians across the government.
Former US officials say they had two aims: to ensure that such meddling is not duplicated in future US or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators.
US allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials and others close to Russian president Vladimir Putin and associates of president-elect Trump, according to three former US officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence.
Trump's statements stoked fears among some that intelligence could be covered up or destroyed or its sources exposed once power changed hands
Separately, US intelligence agencies had intercepted communications of Russian officials, some of them within the Kremlin, discussing contacts with Trump’s associates.
Then and now, Trump has denied that his campaign had any contact with Russian officials, and at one point he openly suggested that US spy agencies had cooked up intelligence suggesting that the Russian government had tried to meddle in the presidential election.
Trump has accused the Obama administration of hyping the Russia storyline as a way to discredit his new administration.
Push to preserve intelligence
At the Obama White House, Trump’s statements stoked fears among some that intelligence could be covered up or destroyed or its sources exposed once power changed hands. What followed was a push to preserve the intelligence that underscored the deep anxiety with which the White House and US intelligence agencies had come to view the threat from Moscow.
It also reflected the suspicion among many in the Obama White House that the Trump campaign might have colluded with Russia on election email hacks a suspicion that US officials say has not been confirmed. Former senior Obama administration officials said that none of the efforts were directed by then-president Barack Obama.
“The only new piece of information that has come to light is that political appointees in the Obama administration have sought to create a false narrative to make an excuse for their own defeat in the election. There continues to be no there, there,” said Sean Spicer, the White House spokesman.
As Inauguration Day approached, Obama White House officials grew convinced that the intelligence was damning and that they needed to ensure that as many people as possible inside government could see it, even if people without security clearances could not.
What intensified the alarm at the Obama White House was a campaign of cyberattacks on state electoral systems in September
Some officials began asking specific questions at intelligence briefings, knowing the answers would be archived and could be easily unearthed by investigators including the Senate Intelligence Committee, which in early January announced an inquiry into Russian efforts to influence the election.
Intelligence agencies
At intelligence agencies, there was a push to process as much raw intelligence as possible into analyses, and to keep the reports at a relatively low level of classification to ensure as wide a readership as possible across the government and, in some cases, among European allies.
This allowed the upload of as much intelligence as possible to Intellipedia, a secret wiki used by US intelligence analysts to share information.
There was also an effort to pass reports and other sensitive materials to Congress. In one instance, the state department sent a cache of documents marked "secret" to Senator Benjamin Cardin of Maryland days before the January 20th inauguration. The documents, detailing Russian efforts to intervene in elections worldwide, were sent in response to a request from Cardin, the top Democrat on the foreign relations committee.
"This situation was serious, as is evident by president Obama's call for a review and as is evident by the United States response," said Eric Schultz, a spokesman for Obama. "When the intelligence community does that type of comprehensive review, it is standard practice that a significant amount of information would be compiled and documented."
The opposite happened with the most sensitive intelligence, including the names of sources and the identities of foreigners who were regularly monitored. Officials tightened the already small number of people who could access that information. They knew the information could not be kept from the new president or his top advisers, but wanted to narrow the number of people who might see the information, officials said.
More than a half-dozen current and former officials described various aspects of the effort to preserve and distribute the intelligence, and some said they were speaking to draw attention to the material and ensure proper investigation by Congress. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified information, nearly all of which remains secret, making an independent public assessment of the competing Obama and Trump administration claims impossible.
The Obama administration also wanted to help European allies combat a threat that had caught the US off guard
The FBI is conducting a wide-ranging counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s meddling in the election, and is examining alleged links between Trump’s associates and the Russian government. Separately, the House and Senate intelligence committees are conducting their own investigations, though they must rely on information collected by the FBI and intelligence agencies.
Little faith in Trump administration
At his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, former Senator Dan Coats, Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that “I think it’s our responsibility to provide you access to all that you need.”
Some Obama White House officials had little faith that a Trump administration would make good on such pledges, and the efforts to preserve the intelligence continued until the administration’s final hours. This was partly because intelligence was still being collected and analysed, but it also reflected the sentiment among many administration officials that they had not recognised the scale of the Russian campaign until it was too late.
What intensified the alarm at the Obama White House was a campaign of cyberattacks on state electoral systems in September, which led the Obama administration to deliver a public accusation against the Russians in October. But it was not until after the election, and after more intelligence had come in, that the administration began to grasp the scope of the suspected tampering and concluded that one goal of the campaign was to help tip the election in Trump’s favour.
In early December, Obama ordered the intelligence community to conduct a full assessment about the Russian campaign.
In the weeks before the assessment was released in January, the intelligence community combed through databases for an array of communications and other information some of which was months old by then and began producing reports that showed there were contacts during the campaign between Trump associates and Russian officials.
Unknown
The nature of the contacts remains unknown. Several of Trump's associates have done business in Russia, and it is unclear if any of the contacts were related to business dealings. The New York Times, citing four current and former officials, reported last month that US authorities had obtained information of repeated contacts between Trump's associates and senior Russian intelligence officials. The White House has dismissed the story as false.
Since the February 14th article appeared, more than a half-dozen officials have confirmed contacts of various kinds between Russians and Trump associates. The label “intelligence official” is not always cleanly applied in Russia, where ex-spies, oligarchs and government officials often report back to the intelligence services and elsewhere in the Kremlin.
Steven L Hall, the former head of Russia operations at the CIA, said Putin was surrounded by a cast of characters, and that it was “fair to say that a good number of them come from an intelligence or security background. Once an intel guy, always an intel guy in Russia.”
Beyond leaving a trail for investigators, the Obama administration also wanted to help European allies combat a threat that had caught the US off guard. US. intelligence agencies made it clear in the declassified version of the intelligence assessment released in January that they believed Russia intended to use its attacks on the US as a template for more meddling.
“We assess Moscow will apply lessons learned,” the report said, “to future influence efforts worldwide, including against US allies.”
The New York Times