Dutch passed on information about Trump’s aides and Russia: NYT

Dutch and British officials were among those providing information about meetings in  European cities between Russian officials and associates of President-elect Trump, the New York Times said on Thursday.

The paper spoke to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence. They told the paper in the last days of the Obama administration, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election.

The aim was ‘to ensure that such meddling isn’t duplicated in future American or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators,’ the NYT said.

The paper did not give any more details about the Dutch intelligence.

However, there have been several stories in the media recently about Russian involvement in the Netherlands, in particular during last year’s referendum on the EU’s treaty with Ukraine.

Last month, the NYT wrote a lengthy article about the role of Russian nationals in the referendum campaign.

The Dutch security service recently said foreign countries, and notably Russia, had tried hundreds of times in recent months to penetrate the computers of government agencies and businesses.

That lead home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk to say that computers linked to the internet could not be used in counting votes after the March 15 general election because of the risk of hacking.