CIA bilked out of $100,000 by Russian promising info on Trump: Report
American spies paid $100,000 to a Russian operative last year to recover stolen documents from the National Security Agency and compromising information on President Donald Trump, according to reports.
CIA agents spent much of last year trying to retrieve the stolen materials. Communications channels began early in 2017 with US officials and Russian intermediaries meeting in Germany, according to The Intercept.
Eventfully a Russian operative agreed to a deal to sell the stolen NSA documents and promising to put Trump-related materials in the package, including a video tape of the Republican engaged with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room.
The Times report also provides new details on a notorious operative, Cody Shearer, who has reportedly been criss-crossing Europe over the past six months in an attempt to obtain video footage of Trump from the Moscow hotel room.
The money was delivered to a Berlin hotel room in September as the first installment of a $1 million reward, The New York Times reported, citing US officials, the Russian man and communications it reviewed.
The operative showed the video to a Berlin-based American businessman who served as his intermediary to the CIA.
Several US intelligence officials told the Times they told the Russian they did not want the damaging information on the president, fearing the backlash it would create within the administration.
However, the Russian tantalized US intelligence officials with the offer to sell the stolen NSA hacking tools, which had been advertised for sale online.
But instead of providing the stolen materials, the seller produced unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data, according to the Times.
The Russian, who allegedly has ties to organized criminals and money launderers, stonewalled the production of the cyber tools. American spies then halted the deal.
Some of the tools, developed by the NSA to hack into foreign computers, were used by other hackers last year in the global "ransomware" attack of last May.
The software weapon would allow NSA hackers to break into millions of Windows computers by taking advantage of a flaw in a network protocol of the operating system.
Thousands protest Trump’s immigration policies on second term anniversary
US Justice Department refuses probe into killing of Minneapolis mother
Trump launches sweeping clemency offensive, pardoning allies, donors, repeat fraudsters
EU Parliament halts US trade deal after Trump tariff threat
VIDEO | An unchecked presidency
VIDEO | Deportations strain Afghanistan’s fragile economy
‘Full-scale atrocity’: Iran security body reports 2,427 martyrs in US-Israeli-led riots
Smallest coffins are the heaviest: The three youngest victims of foreign-backed riots in Iran
Hamas warns of ‘systematic Israeli violations’ as Gaza ceasefire teeters
Israeli strikes kill 11 across Gaza, including children and journalists: Palestinian medics
US forces transferring Daesh prisoners from Syria to Iraq: CENTCOM
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
