title:  WOW: Intercepted Communications Implicate Three Top Trump Advisors In Plot With Russia
text: By now, you have probably heard that the FBI and five other intelligence agencies have, for months, been investigating ties between many of Trump s top-level people and Russia. On Thursday, The New York Times told us who it is:The counterintelligence investigation centers at least in part on the business dealings that some of the president-elect s past and present advisers have had with Russia. Mr. Manafort has done business in Ukraine and Russia. Some of his contacts there were under surveillance by the National Security Agency for suspected links to Russia s Federal Security Service, one of the officials said.Mr. Manafort is among at least three Trump campaign advisers whose possible links to Russia are under scrutiny. Two others are Carter Page, a businessman and former foreign policy adviser to the campaign, and Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative.The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department s financial crimes unit. The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House.Counterintelligence investigations examine the connections between American citizens and foreign governments. Those connections can involve efforts to steal state or corporate secrets, curry favor with American government leaders or influence policy. It is unclear which Russian officials are under investigation, or what particular conversations caught the attention of American eavesdroppers. The legal standard for opening these investigations is low, and prosecutions are rare.In short, it s unlikely that anyone will be charged, but we as Americans have every reason to be concerned with the people with whom Trump surrounds himself. Manafort, naturally, calls the allegations a Democrat Party dirty trick and completely false. I have never had any relationship with the Russian government or any Russian officials. I was never in contact with anyone, or directed anyone to be in contact with anyone,  he adds. On the  Russian hacking of the D.N.C.,  my only knowledge of it is what I have read in the papers.  Politifact confirmed last year that Manafort has many relationships with pro-Putin politicians in Ukraine at minimum.While Trump will attempt to connect this to the 35-page  pee pee dossier  published by Buzzfeed   the one handed to Trump and Obama by intelligence agencies   the FBI says that the decision to open the investigation was not based on those in the least:The F.B.I. investigation into Mr. Manafort began last spring, and was an outgrowth of a criminal investigation into his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine and for the country s former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. In August, The Times reported that Mr. Manafort s name had surfaced in a secret ledger that showed he had been paid millions in undisclosed cash payments. The Associated Press has reported that his work for Ukraine included a secret lobbying effort in Washington aimed at influencing American news organizations and government officials.Mr. Stone, a longtime friend of Mr. Trump s, said in a speech in Florida last summer that he had communicated with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that published the hacked Democratic emails. During the speech, Mr. Stone predicted further leaks of documents, a prediction that came true within weeks.In a brief interview on Thursday, Mr. Stone said he had never visited Russia and had no Russian clients. He said that he had worked in Ukraine for a pro-Western party, but that any assertion that he had ties to Russian intelligence was  nonsense  and  totally false. The whole thing is a canard,  he said.  I have no Russian influences. The Senate intelligence committee has started its own investigation into Russia s purported attempts to disrupt the election. The committee s inquiry is broad, and will include an examination of Russian hacking and possible ties between people associated with Mr. Trump s campaign and Russia.Investigators are also scrutinizing people on the periphery of Mr. Trump s campaign, such as Mr. Page, a former Merrill Lynch banker who founded Global Energy Capital, an investment firm in New York that has done business with Russia.In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Page expressed bewilderment about why he might be under investigation. He blamed a smear campaign   that he said was orchestrated by Mrs. Clinton   for media speculation about the nature of his ties to Russia. I did nothing wrong, for the 5,000th time,  he said. His adversaries, he added, are  pulling a page out of the Watergate playbook. What further details will the investigation reveal? Only time will tell   but Donald Trump is now our President, and his cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin is terrifyingly clear. All you have to do is look at his Twitter account.Featured image via Getty Images (Chip Somodevilla/Win McNamee/Spencer Platt)