'Top Russian officials discussed how to influence Trump aides last summer'

Senior Russian intelligence and political officials discussed how to influence Donald Trump through his advisers according to information gathered by American spies last summer, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The conversations focused on Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman at the time, and Michael Flynn, a retired general who was advising Trump, the officials said. Both men had indirect ties to Russian officials, who appeared confident that each could be used to help shape Trump's opinions on Russia. Some Russians boasted about how well they knew Flynn. Others discussed leveraging their ties to Viktor Yanukovych, the deposed president of Ukraine living in exile in Russia, who at one time had worked closely with Manafort.

The intelligence was among the clues — which also included information about direct communications between Trump's advisers and Russian officials — that American officials received last year as they began investigating Russian attempts to disrupt the election and whether any of Trump's associates were assisting Moscow in the effort. Details of the conversations add to an increasing understanding of the alarm inside the American government last year about the Russian disruption campaign.

The information collected last summer was considered credible enough for intelligence agencies to pass to the FBI, which during that period opened a counterintelligence investigation that is continuing. It is unclear, however, whether Russian officials actually tried to directly influence Manafort and Flynn.