Ex-CIA director’s testimony fuels new round of anti-Russian agitation
By
Patrick Martin
24 May 2017
Former CIA Director John Brennan appeared before the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday, giving lengthy testimony that sparked an avalanche of headlines about allegations of collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russian intelligence.
The greatest attention was given to Brennan’s declaration that there had been a pattern of contacts between Trump aides and Russian officials that aroused the suspicion of the CIA during the summer of 2016.
“I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and US persons involved in the Trump campaign that I was concerned about because of known Russian efforts to suborn such individuals,” he told the panel. “And it raised questions in my mind again whether or not the Russians were able to gain the cooperation of those individuals.”
Brennan refused to identify any of these individuals or answer a direct question about whether Trump was one of those targeted. Later in his testimony, after considerable badgering by Republican representatives, he reiterated that there were still matters to investigate. When he left office on January 20, 2017, he said, “I had unresolved questions in my mind as to whether or not the Russians had been successful in getting US persons, involved in the campaign or not, to work on their behalf, again, either in a witting or unwitting fashion.”
Brennan never actually said that there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, claiming that was something still to be determined in ongoing investigations by the FBI and the special counsel appointed by the Department of Justice, former FBI…