House Probe Looking At Trump Campaign Adviser Who Worked In Russia

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Yet another Trump campaign associate is under scrutiny for his connections to Russia: former communications adviser Michael Caputo.

The New York Times reported Saturday that Caputo was asked by the House Intelligence Committee to come in for a voluntary interview and provide any documents he may possess relevant to their probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives.

Caputo, who spent six months with the Trump campaign, worked in Russia during the 1990s and did work for Gazprom Media, a subsidiary of the Russian oil giant, in the early 2000s, according to the Times.

The May 9 letter from the committee asked Caputo to provide “any documents, records, electronically stored information including email, communication, recordings, data and tangible things” that could “reasonably lead to the discovery of any facts within the investigation’s publicly announced parameters,” according to a copy reviewed by the newspaper.

The onetime Trump adviser has denied any wrongdoing and insisted on Twitter that the Trump-Russia story is “pure unadulterated bullshit.”

After House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Jackier Speier (D-CA) brought up his work for Gazprom and assistance with a 2007 parliamentary election in Kiev during a March hearing, Caputo told his local Buffalo, New York news station that the probe was pure “politics.”

“If I wasn’t being investigated by the FBI before, I probably am now,” he told WBEN. “I’m OK with that. I did nothing wrong and I’m sure I’ll be vindicated”.

Caputo told the Intelligence Committee that he planned to cooperate with their request, saying he did not “have any contact” with Russian operatives or discussions about Russia with other campaign staffers while employed by Trump’s campaign, according to a written response reviewed by the Times.

“The only time the president and I talked about Russia was in 2013, when he simply asked me in passing what it was like to live there in the context of a dinner conversation,” he wrote, per the Times report.

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