Report: Obama officials spent final days purposely pushing Russia allegations

Officials in the Obama administration reportedly spent Barack Obama's final few days in office spreading their message internally that President Trump's associates had maintained inappropriate ties to Russian officials during the campaign, an allegation that neither the Obama administration nor the Trump administration has publicly substantiated.

Obama administration officials also sought to preserve evidence of what they characterized as Russia's attempts to influence the election by hacking into Democrats' email accounts, according to a New York Timesreport issued late Wednesday.

The Times cited three former government officials in its assertion that British and Dutch intelligence officials had given the U.S. government evidence of what they said was a series of meetings between Russian officials and Trump associates.

The Trump White House has denied that any aide close to the president ever had ties to the Kremlin during the campaign or transition. White House press secretary Sean Spicer has said he is not aware of any law enforcement investigation into such ties.

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