Officials Investigating Top Trump Aide’s Ties To Russia

Another member of Donald Trump’s campaign team faces scrutiny for his alleged connections to Russian officials.

Multiple sources told Yahoo News that Carter Page, one of Trump’s foreign policy advisers who has praised Vladimir Putin on many occasions and has investments with Russia’s state-run gas company Gazprom, has been in talks with high-ranking Russian government officials about Trump potentially lifting economic sanctions if he wins the presidency. Senior members of Congress learned of this during several briefings regarding Russia’s potential attempts to infiltrated the presidential election, the sources said.

“It’s on our radar screen,” a senior U.S. law enforcement official told Yahoo of the matter. “It’s being looked at.”

Page, a former Merrill Lynch investment banker in Moscow, currently serves at the head of Global Energy Capital, a New York consulting firm that frequently works on gas and oil deals in Russia and neighboring countries.

Trump has identified Page as a member of his “foreign policy team,” though he did not elaborate on the specifics of Page’s position and relationship to the campaign. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks referred to Page in August as an “informal foreign adviser” who “does not speak for Trump or the campaign.”

“We are not aware of any of his activities, past or present,” Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said of the investment banker in mid-September.

Trump has caught criticism several times throughout the election for potential connections to Russian business as well as his high praises for Vladimir Putin, whom he called “very much of a leader” during a town hall earlier in September, according to Real Clear Politics.

As the November general election draws near, officials have expressed increasing concern over the extent of the Russian government’s involvement in the election and how much of a hand they would have in it.

“Based on briefings we have received, we have concluded that the Russian intelligence agencies are making a serious and concerted effort to influence the U.S. election,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, ranking minority member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking minority member on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a joint statement, according to Yahoo News. “At the least, this effort is intended to sow doubt about the security of our election and may well be intended to influence the outcomes of the election.”

Sources: Yahoo News, Real Clear Politics / Photo Credit: MARIAJONER/Wikimedia Commons