Trump reportedly spoke with Giuliani on unsecured cellphone lines that were likely tapped by Russia spies
Category: News & Politics
Via: tessylo • 5 years ago • 21 commentsBy: tporter@businessinsider.com (Tom Porter),Business Insider
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Trump reportedly spoke with Giuliani on unsecured cellphone lines that were likely tapped by Russia spies
tporter@businessinsider.com (Tom Porter), Business Insider 1 hour 33 minutes ago
- President Donald Trump has been communicating with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on unsecured cellphone lines exposed to surveillance by Russian intelligence, The Washington Post reported Friday .
- John Sipher, the former deputy chief of Russia operations at the CIA, told The Post that in failing to secure their communications, Trump and Giuliani had effectively "given the Russians ammunition they can use in an overt fashion, a covert fashion, or in the twisting of information."
- Giuliani has played a leading role in seeking damaging information on Trump's behalf about the Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden from former Ukrainian officials, a search that is now subject to an impeachment investigation .
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .
President Donald Trump has communicated with Rudy Giuliani on unsecured personal cellphone lines that were almost certainly being monitored by Russian intelligence, current and former US officials told The Washington Post .
According to phone records released by the House Intelligence Committee this week , Giuliani regularly communicated with several key Trump administration officials and most likely the president himself using his cellphone while he sought damaging information from former Ukrainian officials on the Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden.
But according to intelligence officials who spoke with The Post, there is no indication that Giuliani's phone was encrypted or otherwise protected from surveillance by foreign powers.
An administration official, who was not named in Friday's report, said that Trump regularly talked to Giuliani and others on unsecured lines.
"It happened all the time," the official told The Post. Another aide described Trump's habit of using unsecured cellphone lines as a "bonanza" for foreign intelligence.
Officials told The Post that intelligence agents could have used information gleaned from the calls to feed selected disinformation to Giuliani via Ukrainian assets.
In recent weeks Republican lawmakers and the president have defended a groundless theory reportedly seeded by Russian intelligence that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
Giuliani again traveled to Ukraine this week and met a lawmaker from the pro-Russia Party of Regions.
John Sipher, the former deputy chief of Russia operations at the CIA, told The Post that in failing to secure their communications, Trump and Giuliani had effectively "given the Russians ammunition they can use in an overt fashion, a covert fashion, or in the twisting of information."
He said Russian intelligence agencies most likely had more information on what Trump and Giuliani discussed in the calls than House impeachment investigators.
"Congress and investigators have call records that suggest certain things but have no means whatsoever of getting the actual text" of what was said, Sipher said. "I guarantee the Russians have the actual information."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Russians likely eavesdropped on Giulani’s calls with Trump: report
By
MIKEMURPHY
Those are the words of John Sipher, the CIA’s former deputy chief of Russia operations, telling the Washington Post that Russia probably knows more about Rudy Giulani’s calls regarding Ukraine than impeachment investigators do.
The Post reported Thursday that phone logs between Giuliani and the White House switchboard suggest high-level communications on personal cellphones that were almost certainly under foreign surveillance.
Sipher told the Post that Russian intelligence likely monitors Giuliani’s calls and that through the continued use of unsecured phones, Guiliani and President Donald Trump have effectively “given the Russians ammunition they can use in an overt fashion, a covert fashion or in the twisting of information.”
An unnamed former senior aide agreed that the Russians have likely been eavesdropping on calls between Trump and Giuliani. “It’s a bonanza for them,” he told the Post.
And it’s not just calls with the president — the Post said that Giuliani’s phone conversations with people such as Lev Parnas could be just as valuable to foreign spies, especially if he was recounting conversations he had with Trump.
U.S. officials told the Post that Giuliani would have been a prime target for Russian intelligence efforts since early on in Trump’s administration. And knowing about their discussions could greatly help Russian disinformation efforts in Ukraine and the U.S., they said.
Trump’s use of unsecured phones was reported as far back as May 2017, after reports that he gave foreign leaders his private cellphone number. A Politico report a year later said Trump found the secure lines “too inconvenient.”
Giuliani has had his own security issues — in October, NBC News reported he brought his phone to an Apple Store to get it unlocked, a move that experts called “crazy” and “unnerving” because an Apple employee with no security clearance could have accessed classified information.
Ironically, one of Trump’s main lines of attack against 2016 presidential opponent Hillary Clinton was her use of a private email server that was vulnerable to hacking.
Officials Still Worry Trump Is Using Cellphones That Can Be Hacked: Report
President Donald Trump has continued to use a cellphone that U.S. officials warn may be vulnerable to hacking by Russian intelligence, according to a report Thursday in The Washington Post.
The House Intelligence Committee released a bevy of phone records earlier this week as part of its impeachment investigation, showing a number of calls between Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and unidentified people in the White House. The Post, citing current and former U.S. officials, said Trump may well have been the recipient of those calls and there is no indication they were encrypted in order to deter foreign governments from listening in.
“It happens all the time,” one former aide told the Post, referring to Trump’s calls with Giuliani on unsecured devices.
The president has been criticized over his penchant for personal devices before. In May 2018, Politico reported that the president used two government-issued iPhones that didn’t have top security features. A recommendation that the phones be swapped out every month to avoid monitoring was “too inconvenient,” an official told Politico at the time.
The New York Times reported in October 2018 that U.S. intelligence reports indicated Chinese and Russian spies had been able to listen to Trump’s calls on the iPhones. He still refused to give up the devices at the time.
The president has pushed back on the various reports about his iPhone use. After the October story, he called the Times report “soooo wrong,” saying he only used government phones and that he “seldom” used government cellphones.
The Post noted that Trump had given his private cellphone number to various world leaders, and it’s unclear if and when he has conversations with them using his personal devices. The Post said that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron have the number, as does Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also reportedly has the digits.
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Trump Reportedly Rejects Phone Security Measures As 'Too Inconvenient'
Reportedly...........Likely.......'nuff said
Nope, not 'nuff said.
And why would the Russians need to eavesdrop on conversations of their own "operative", "puppet", "asset", etc.?
LOL, good one.
Yeah, but what about Hillary's emails in 2010?
From Ivanka's private email server to Trump's unsecured phone line to Rudy's Ukrainian side deals Trumpism is just another word for a national security nightmare...
I've got an idea. Why doesnt one of the reporters ask Trump ,at his next helicopter pad "press conference" , why he is talking to people on unsecure phones?
He'll lie about it of course but at least he will know someone cares.
That's quite a claim. Easy to make though, because there will never be any way to prove or disprove it. Meanwhile, there will be plenty of people willing to accept it as an established fact.
And "guaranteed" to boot! Does that mean we get our money back if he's wrong?
This guy makes it sound like the Russians have magical powers compared to what we have in the U.S.