Washington: President Donald Trump seems to be sinking deeper in the Russian mess amid reports that several of his top associates have links to Russia.
So far it has emerged that seven Trump associates have had undisclosed contact with Russian agents: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Michael Flynn, Trump's pick for national-security adviser; Jared Kushner, senior adviser and Mr Trump's son-in-law; Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager; Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer; Roger Stone, a longtime political associate and Carter Page, one of his foreign-policy advisers.
There have been reports that Russia interfered with the US elections. Mr Trump has vehemently denied these allegations. Earlier this month, Mr Flynn resigned as the national-security adviser after it emerged that he had lied to Vice-President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that Mr Sessions met with Mr Kislyak twice during the Presidential campaign. Though he said he had “never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign” Mr Sessions stepped aside from the FBI investigation into Russia’s interference in the campaign. On Friday, various US media outlets ran stories of Mr Kushner, the President’s son-in-law, meeting Mr Kislyak in December.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump is telling advisers and allies that he may shelve — at least temporarily — his plan to pursue a deal with Moscow on ISIS and other security matters. In conversations with diplomats and officials, Mr Trump and his aides have ascribed the new thinking to Moscow’s recent provocations.
