AFP, Washington :
The CIA had evidence that Russia was interfering in the 2016 US election to boost Donald Trump earlier than previously thought, the New York Times reported Thursday.
Russia’s interference was not made public until months after Mr Trump’s November 8 election victory, with US intelligence chiefs openly accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of masterminding a hacking and disinformation campaign to skew the election results.
Citing former government officials, The Times said secret briefings much earlier in the presidential campaign had revealed Russia’s move to support Mr Trump-as well as divergence between the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is in charge of counterintelligence.
FBI senior officials had held that Russian hacks of Democratic Party communications were aimed at disrupting the election, without the specific goal of electing Mr Trump. The agency later reached the same conclusion as the CIA.
John Brennan, the former head of the CIA, began in August secretly briefing top members of Congress on early, CIA-detected signs of possible collusion between Mr Trump’s inner circle and the Russians.
The FBI confirmed in March that it was probing whether Mr Trump campaign aides had worked with the Russian effort to influence the election.
Two congressional intelligence committees have also launched investigations into the allegations.
Mr Trump has vehemently denied accusations of collusion, and so far no evidence has publicly surfaced.
Ciudad Jurez, Mexico: Roberto Beristain was a Mexican immigrant to the United States whose own American wife voted for Donald Trump as US president because he promised to expel crooks from the country. Now Beristain himself has been deported after 20 years living and working in the United States. “My wife is not very happy because she supported him,” the 43-year-old father of three told AFP at the migrant shelter where he is staying in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez.
“We thought he was going to be a good president because we wanted security,” he added. “His promises to expel criminals from the country seemed like a good idea.”
“We never thought it would end like this.”
Despite his marriage and work record, Beristain was still living in the United States with provisional residency papers after all these years. He was expecting to soon obtain permanent residency in the United States.
But he says officials suddenly deported him after Trump ordered deportations to be stepped up in February.
The move was made on the basis of an earlier deportation order dating to 2000 that predated his current legal provisional residency status.
Beristain entered the United States illegally in 1998 after leaving his home in Mexico City.
He met his wife there and they married 17 years ago.
“I became what I had not been in Mexico-a responsible person.”
Their children were all born in the United States: Maria, 15; Jasmine, 14; and Demetri, eight.
Despite never having obtained permanent resident status, he was able to buy a restaurant in Indianapolis.
The CIA had evidence that Russia was interfering in the 2016 US election to boost Donald Trump earlier than previously thought, the New York Times reported Thursday.
Russia’s interference was not made public until months after Mr Trump’s November 8 election victory, with US intelligence chiefs openly accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of masterminding a hacking and disinformation campaign to skew the election results.
Citing former government officials, The Times said secret briefings much earlier in the presidential campaign had revealed Russia’s move to support Mr Trump-as well as divergence between the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is in charge of counterintelligence.
FBI senior officials had held that Russian hacks of Democratic Party communications were aimed at disrupting the election, without the specific goal of electing Mr Trump. The agency later reached the same conclusion as the CIA.
John Brennan, the former head of the CIA, began in August secretly briefing top members of Congress on early, CIA-detected signs of possible collusion between Mr Trump’s inner circle and the Russians.
The FBI confirmed in March that it was probing whether Mr Trump campaign aides had worked with the Russian effort to influence the election.
Two congressional intelligence committees have also launched investigations into the allegations.
Mr Trump has vehemently denied accusations of collusion, and so far no evidence has publicly surfaced.
Ciudad Jurez, Mexico: Roberto Beristain was a Mexican immigrant to the United States whose own American wife voted for Donald Trump as US president because he promised to expel crooks from the country. Now Beristain himself has been deported after 20 years living and working in the United States. “My wife is not very happy because she supported him,” the 43-year-old father of three told AFP at the migrant shelter where he is staying in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez.
“We thought he was going to be a good president because we wanted security,” he added. “His promises to expel criminals from the country seemed like a good idea.”
“We never thought it would end like this.”
Despite his marriage and work record, Beristain was still living in the United States with provisional residency papers after all these years. He was expecting to soon obtain permanent residency in the United States.
But he says officials suddenly deported him after Trump ordered deportations to be stepped up in February.
The move was made on the basis of an earlier deportation order dating to 2000 that predated his current legal provisional residency status.
Beristain entered the United States illegally in 1998 after leaving his home in Mexico City.
He met his wife there and they married 17 years ago.
“I became what I had not been in Mexico-a responsible person.”
Their children were all born in the United States: Maria, 15; Jasmine, 14; and Demetri, eight.
Despite never having obtained permanent resident status, he was able to buy a restaurant in Indianapolis.
