WASHINGTON (CN) - Looking for perspective on the two-year Russia investigation, House lawmakers grilled two former FBI officials Wednesday about espionage techniques common to the Kremlin.
Though both Robert Anderson and Stephanie Douglas retired long before the 2016 appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, members of Intelligence Committee invited the pair to share insights this morning from their 40-plus years combined experience in intelligence.
“Russia will exploit any avenue they can if pursuing intelligence or if they want to extort someone into action,” said Anderson, former executive assistant director of the FBI’s criminal cyber division. “They never rely on just one break point. If they’re looking to obtain or pass information, they’ll make sure they have numerous access points to do it.”
Mueller identified contacts among President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian officials more than 100 times. From a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between a Russian lawyer, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and then campaign-chairman Paul Manafort to communication between campaign strategist Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, head of a Russian sovereign wealth fund, the opportunities for Russia to infiltrate the American political apparatus stacked up.
Anderson said Wednesday that the activities may not have risen to the level of a chargeable crime, but that doesn’t mean lawmakers should underestimate the danger that lurked there.
“This administration, like some before it, there were not a lot of people that understood the threats were real,” Anderson said.
Private-sector individuals lacking in intelligence community experience largely populated the Trump campaign, making them easy marks.
“People need to realize when foreign powers are going after individuals trying to recruit them, it’s not like what you see on television,” he said.
“The people that are coming for them, they will utilize individuals in academia or people with ties to certain social settings and more.”
It usually begins with a test.
It’s called “tasking,” said Douglas, adding that this appears to her exactly what happened with Manafort in the summer of 2016.
That August, Manafort shared internal polling data with Kostantin Kilimnik, an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin whom the U.S. government has identified as connected to Russian intelligence agencies. Kilimnik denies it.
“Polling data aren’t the keys to the kingdom, but it is a small step that illustrated his willingness to provide information to someone he knows he is beholden to financially,” Douglas said.
“That’s a good example of how the Russians typically work,” she added.
The Mueller report never concluded why Manafort shared the data but noted that Manafort’s ex-business partner Rick Gates said the information was meant for Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, a Putin’ ally.
