Trump Administration Repeatedly Denied There Was Any Contact With Russia During Campaign

On Jan. 15, shortly before Trump took office, Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly said on television that there was zero contact between the campaign and Russian officials.

“Just to button up one question, did any adviser or anybody in the Trump campaign have any contact with the Russians who were trying to meddle in the election?” CBS “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson asked. 

“Of course not,” Pence replied.

Pence also answered “of course not” when asked a similar question that day by “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, adding, “All the contact by the Trump campaign and associates were with the American people.” 

Trump himself denied these interactions, according to NBC News on Jan. 11:

Trump did not specifically address questions regarding whether members of his staff were in contact with Russian officials during the campaign. When NBC News repeated that question to Trump afterwards as the president-elect approached the elevator to exit the room, he answered “No.”

In February, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer seemed to stand by those earlier denials . 

“There’s nothing that would conclude me that anything different has changed with respect to that time period,” Spicer said. 

These statements have been proved wrong now over and over.

Both Trump and President Barack Obama were briefed on the intelligence community’s findings that there was “repeated” contact between Russian intelligence operatives and the Trump aides during the campaign, although it’s not clear when those briefings took place. 

It’s also not known whether Trump specifically knew which members of his inner circle were having these meetings.

Pence, for example, has said he did not know Flynn had lied about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. That misrepresentation is the reason Trump said he fired his national security adviser, maintaining that there was nothing wrong with the two men talking. 

On Thursday night, Trump tweeted that he stood by Sessions despite his admission. 

“I’m not aware of any of those activities,” Sessions said in January, when Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asked him whether anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign had met with Russian officials.

“I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians,” he added.

Sessions has maintained that his conversations with the ambassador were part of his duties as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, not as a Trump surrogate.

Want more updates from Amanda Terkel? Sign up for her newsletter, Piping Hot Truth, here .