President Donald Trump has routinely talked with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others on cellphones that could be monitored by foreign intelligence agencies, The Washington Post reported.
Phone-call records disclosed in the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment inquiry report showed extensive communications between Giuliani and others to pressure Ukraine, with no indication those calls were encrypted or protected from foreign surveillance, the Post reported.
According to the Post, Trump is not identified by name in the House phone records, but investigators suspect he might be a person with a blocked number listed as "-1" in the files.
Administration officials told the Post Trump has communicated regularly with Giuliani on unsecured lines.
"It happened all the time," one unnamed former senior aide told the Post, noting Giuliani had a range of foreign clients.
The Post reported that Russia is already using disinformation tactics to target U.S. citizens, and could enlist operatives in Ukraine to feed false information to Giuliani, who went to Kyiv this week to meet a Ukrainian lawmaker.
Trump and Giuliani have effectively "given the Russians ammunition they can use in an overt fashion, a covert fashion, or in the twisting of information," said John Sipher, former deputy chief of Russia operations at the CIA.
"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 Post reported senior officials at the White House are concerned because repeated attempts have failed to break Trump of his habit of speaking on his own cellphone or to others using unsecured lines.
"It's absolutely a security issue," the former senior aide told the Post, adding that foreign intelligence agencies could be listening in on the president's unsecured calls with Giuliani. "It's a bonanza for them."
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