In the final days of the Obama administration, some White House officials reportedly rushed to preserve and spread information about possible communication between associates of then-candidate Donald Trump and Russian officials, fearing the information could be compromised by the incoming administration.
The Obama administration officials sought to ensure that something like Russia's meddling in the 2016 election never happens again and to set up a future investigation into the matter with a "a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators," the New York Times reported Wednesday, citing former American officials.
American intelligence agencies and European allies had provided the Obama White House "damning" information that showed meetings taking place between Russian officials, and others close to President Vladimir Putin, and associates of Trump, according to the Times.
A former intelligence official confirmed to Fox News that the Obama administration's goal was to "keep the Russian issue alive" and ensure evidence of Moscow's reported election interference was widely disseminated.
Normally such circulation is kept private, but the former official said the Russia hacking issue was so serious that two versions of the intelligence were created–one for the public and the other classified.
To make sure the intelligence could be seen widely by people with the necessary security clearances, officials would ask specific questions and then archive the answers to be easily discovered by future investigators.
The "raw" intelligence was given a low classification level to enable more people to access the files.
Reports on the Obama administration's efforts to preserve intelligence regarding contact between Trump associates and Moscow coincided with the revelation Wednesday night that Attorney General Jeff Sessions met twice last year with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.
Senior congressional Democrats have called on Sessions to resign for not disclosing the meetings during his confirmation hearing to become attorney general.
Sessions has maintained that he did not discuss any campaign-related issues with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Session's spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, said Thursday that the former Alabama lawmaker met with Kislyak as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who "had over 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors" last year.