Report: British spies first spotted Trump-Russia links in 2015

Britain’s spy agencies helped alert U.S. intelligence officials to possible links between President Trump’s campaign and Russia after first noticing interactions in late 2015, The Guardian reported Thursday.

The report said Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) noticed suspicious interactions between Trump allies and known or suspected Russian agents in late 2015.

The information was picked up amid routine surveillance of Russian targets and was not part of a spying operation aimed at Trump’s team, the Guardian said.

{mosads}Other foreign nations also reportedly shared intelligence about links between Russia and Trump’s campaign, including Australia, Germany, France, Estonia and Poland.

Trump claimed last month without evidence that former President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower.

The White House pointed to Fox News commentator Andrew Napolitano, who claimed that GCHQ spied on Trump at Obama’s behest. Fox briefly pulled Napolitano off the air after his report, and Fox’s news reporters distanced themselves from his claim.

GCHQ last month called Napolitano’s statement “utterly ridiculous.”