Ex-CIA Chief Reveals Mounting Concern Over Trump Campaign and Russia

John Brennan, the former CIA director, described a nerve-fraying few months in 2016 as American authorities realized that the presidential election was under attack and feared that Donald Trump’s campaign might be aiding that fight. Brennan, in testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, said he was concerned by a series of suspicious contacts between Russian government officials and Trump’s associates.

The CIA learned about those meetings just as it was beginning to grapple with Russian hackers and propagandists trying to manipulate the presidential race. His remarks were the fullest public account to date of the origins of an FBI investigation that continues to shadow the Trump administration. “I know what the Russians try to do,” Brennan said. “They try to suborn individuals and try to get individuals, including US individuals, to act on their behalf, wittingly or unwittingly.” When he left his post in January, 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.”