Thread by @The_War_Economy

"Obama Administration Rushed to Preserve Intelligence of Russian Election Hacking"

March 1, 2017

Matthew Rosenberg, Adam Goldman, Michael S. Schmidt

Contributions by Matt Apuzzo, Charlie Savage and Mark Mazzetti

nytimes.com/2017/03/01/us/…

"In the Obama administration's last days, 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 J. Trump and Russians - across the government."

"Former American officials say they had two aims: to ensure that such meddling isn't duplicated in future American or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators."

"American allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials - and others close to Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin - and associates of President-elect Trump..."

"... according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence."

"Separately, American intelligence agencies had intercepted communications of Russian officials, some of them within the Kremlin, discussing contacts with Trump associates."

Moving on.

"Mr. Trump has denied that his campaign had any contact with Russian officials, and at one point he openly suggested that American spy agencies had cooked up intelligence suggesting that the Russian government had tried to meddle in the presidential election."

"Mr. Trump has accused the Obama administration of hyping the Russia story line as a way to discredit his new administration."

"At the Obama White House, Mr. 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 American intelligence agencies had come to view the threat from Moscow."

Moving on.

"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."

"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 a Russian interference inquiry."

"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 classification level 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 American 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 Jan. 20 inauguration."

"The documents, detailing Russian efforts to intervene in elections worldwide, were sent in response to a request from Mr. Cardin, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, and were shared with Republicans on the panel."

Moving on.

"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."

Moving on.

"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 contacts between Trump associates and Russians officials before the January assessment."

Moving on to final part.

"On Jan. 2, administration officials learned that Mr. Kislyak - after leaving the State Department meeting - called Mr. Flynn, and that the two talked multiple times in the 36 hours that followed."

"American intelligence agencies routinely wiretap the phones of Russian diplomats, and transcripts of the calls showed that Mr Flynn urged the Russians not to respond, saying relations would improve once Mr Trump was in office, according to multiple current and former officials."

"Beyond leaving a trail for investigators, the Obama administration also wanted to help European allies combat a threat that had caught the United States off guard."

The end.