British spies were the first to spot possible links between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia, noticing interactions in late 2015, the U.K.-based Guardian reported Thursday.
Britain's Government Communications Headquarters noticed the interactions between Trump allies and known or suspected Russian agents as the agency was doing its routine surveillance of Russian targets, the Guardian reported.
The intelligence was passed to the United States as part of a routine exchange of information, according to the Guardian.
Other foreign nations also shared intelligence about links between Russia and Trump's campaign, including Australia, Germany, France, Estonia and Poland.
"They [the European agencies] were saying: 'There are contacts going on between people close to Mr. Trump and people we believe are Russian intelligence agents. You should be wary of this,'" an unnamed source told the Guardian. "The message was: 'Watch out. There's something not right here.'"
In March, Trump tweeted that former President Barack Obama had illegally "wiretapped" him in Trump Tower, and press secretary Sean Spicer cited a report by Fox News that GCHQ had carried out the bugging. The British agency called the report "nonsense."
Both U.S. and U.K. intelligence sources acknowledge GCHQ played an early, prominent role in kickstarting the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation, which began in late July 2016, the Guardian reported.
One source called the British eavesdropping agency the "principal whistleblower," the Guardian reported.
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