WASHINGTON • The Biden administration has revealed that a business associate of campaign officials who worked on former president Donald Trump's presidential bid in 2016 provided campaign polling data to Russian intelligence services.
It was the strongest evidence to date that Russian spies had penetrated the inner workings of the Trump campaign.
The revelation, made public in a US Treasury Department document announcing new sanctions against Russia, established for the first time that private meetings and communications between the campaign officials, Mr Paul Manafort and Mr Rick Gates, and their business associate were a direct pipeline from the Trump campaign to Russian spies at a time when the Kremlin was engaged in a covert effort to sabotage the 2016 presidential election.
Previous government investigations have identified the Trump aides' associate Konstantin Kilimnik as a Russian intelligence operative, and Mr Manafort's decision to provide him with internal polling data was one of the mysteries that the special counsel, Mr Robert Mueller, sought to unravel during his two-year investigation into Russia's election meddling.
"During the 2016 US presidential election campaign, Kilimnik provided the Russian intelligence services with sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy," the Treasury Department said in a news statement.
"Additionally, Kilimnik sought to promote the narrative that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 US presidential election."
The Biden administration provided no supporting evidence to bolster the assessment that the Russian intelligence services obtained the polling data and campaign information.
And the statement shed no light on why Mr Manafort and Mr Gates gave polling data to Kilimnik, although previous government reports have indicated that Mr Manafort thought Trump campaign strategy information could be a valuable commodity for future business deals with Kremlin-connected oligarchs.
Having the polling data would have allowed Russia to better understand the Trump campaign strategy - including where the campaign was focusing its resources - at a time when the Russian government was carrying out its own efforts to undermine Mr Trump's opponent.
Mr Gates said in a statement on Thursday that the Treasury Department had failed to provide any evidence to back up its claim, adding that "the polling data passed periodically to Kilimnik at Paul Manafort's direction was simplistic and outdated, never in real time".
"It was from both public and internal sources," Mr Gates said, adding: "It was not massive binders full of demographics or deep research. It was 'topline' numbers and did not contain any strategic plans."
The new sanctions against Russia are in response to the Kremlin's election interference, efforts to hack US government agencies and companies, and other acts of aggression against the United States.
The sanctions make it extremely difficult for Kilimnik, who was indicted by the Justice Department in 2018 on charges of obstruction of justice, to engage in financial transactions that may involve the US.
It is unclear how long US spy agencies have held the conclusion about Kilimnik.
Senior Trump administration officials, fearing Mr Trump's wrath, repeatedly tried to keep from the public any information that seemed to show Mr Trump's affinity for Russia or President Vladimir Putin.
Kilimnik had been a longtime business partner during Mr Manafort's time as a political consultant in Ukraine.
The report contained several significant redactions that appeared related to Mr Manafort and Kilimnik, but said Mr Manafort's willingness to share the information with him "represented a grave counter-intelligence threat".
The report called the relationship between Mr Manafort and Kilimnik "the single most direct tie between senior Trump campaign officials and the Russian intelligence services".
Kilimnik, who has never landed in the US to face charges, is wanted by the FBI.
The bureau is offering US$250,000 (S$333,400) for information that could lead to his arrest.
NYTIMES
