Donald Trump was warned his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani was the target of Russian intelligence hoping to feed him misinformation, it has been claimed.
The Washington Post cited four former officials familiar with the warnings, which were themselves based on intercepted communications and other sources.
The reports said Giuliani had spoken to people linked to Kremlin intelligence during a trip to Ukraine in December.
It’s claimed he was gathering information he thought would expose corruption involving Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
The revelation comes a day after the Biden Campaign denied claims in a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
Questions have been raised about the Post story, details of which which the newspaper say were handed to them by Mr Giuliani and former Trump advisor Steve Bannon.
The Washington Post reported the president had been warned by National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien: “Do what you want to do, but your friend Rudy has been worked by Russian assets in Ukraine.”
Trump reportedly shrugged his shoulders and said: “That’s Rudy.”
Mr Giuliani told the Post he was never told that a man he met in Ukraine was a Russian intelligence asset, and that he “only had secondary information and I was not considering him a witness.”
National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said: “National Security Advisor O’Brien and White House Counsel Cipollone meet with the President frequently on a variety of matters. Ambassador O’Brien does not comment on sensitive intelligence topics, or on the advice he provides President Trump.”
He added that the “characterization of the meeting as described in this article is not accurate.”
Throughout his election campaign, Trump has included unverified and often discredited claims about Hunter Biden into his speeches.
Tonight, Twitter reversed their decision to block links to the New York Post story about Hunter Biden, saying they would instead “label” tweets to provide “context.”
The reversal came after Trump threatened to use the Federal Communications Commission to tear up legal protections which allow social networks to operate without fear of liability for content posted by their users.
