Report: Russia tried to infiltrate Trump campaign through advisers

Moscow attempted to infiltrate President Trump’s 2016 campaign by using his advisers, CNN reported on Friday.

U.S. officials told the news network that the Russian government attempted to use advisers, including Carter Page, in their strategy to infiltrate Trump’s political team during the campaign season.

{mosads}The officials underscored that they were not aware of whether Page knew that he was communicating with Russian intelligence officials given the manner in which Russian operatives operate.

According to the report, Page could have made contact with the Russian intelligence officials without knowing their real identity.

The officials told CNN that Page’ s conversations with suspected Russian operatives are being analyzed as part of a broader Russia-related intelligence-gathering probe by U.S. authorities.

The officials also would not specify the content of the conversations.

Page has disputed the claims that he worked for the Russian intelligence services, maintaining that he always assumed that Russians might share information with Moscow.

“My assumption throughout the last 26 years I’ve been going there has always been that any Russian person might share information with the Russian government … as I have similarly done with the CIA, the FBI and other government agencies in the past,” he said, according to CNN.