Donald Trump’s transition team has been forced to distance itself from reports that American intelligence agencies have intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russia and associates of the president-elect.
On the eve of Trump’s inauguration as the 45th president of the United States, the business dealings of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort were among the matters under investigation, the New York Times reported, citing current and former senior American officials.
Manafort, who stood down as Trump’s campaign chief in August 2016, has made millions from consulting work while working for pro-Russia oligarchs including Rinat Akhmetov, Dmitry Firtash and Oleg Deripaska.
The National Security Agency has conducted surveillance of Manafort’s business contacts, the Times said, for suspected links to Russia’s security service, the FSB.
Other Trump associates whose contacts are said to be under the microscope include Carter Page, an investment banker who worked in Russia and who was a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, and Roger Stone, whose involvement in Republican politics goes back to Richard Nixon.
However, the Trump team denied any knowledge of the investigations – which have reportedly been led by the FBI and supported by the NSA, CIA and the treasury department’s financial crimes unit – or why they might be under way.
“We have absolutely no knowledge of any investigation or even a basis for such an investigation,” said Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for the Trump transition.
Manafort called the allegations that he had interactions with the Russian government 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 said in an emailed statement.
“On the ‘Russian hacking of the D.N.C.,’” he said, “my only knowledge of it is what I have read in the papers.”
The reports follow weeks of intrigue over the possible involvement of Russia in trying to help Trump win last November’s election.
A secret CIA analysis reportedly concluded that people with connections to the Russian government provided emails, hacked from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, to WikiLeaks in the runup to the 8 November election.
In December, outgoing president Barack Obama ordered US intelligence to review evidence of Russian interference in the election, although the Times reported that it was not clear whether the latest revelations were part of that review.
