Phone records and intercepted calls of US President Donald Trump’s campaign team and other associates had repeated contact with the Russian intelligence officials before the presidential election, New York Times reported, citing US officials.
According to the report, U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee.
However, the officials quoted by NYT said they had seen no evidence of such cooperation so far.
The officials said the intercepted communications were not limited to Trump campaign officials, and included other associates of Mr. Trump. On the Russian side, the contacts also included members of the government outside of the intelligence services, New York Times reported.
A report from American intelligence agencies that was made public in January concluded that the Russian government had intervened in the US presidential election to favour Trump.
