Trump aide's 'Russia ties' alleged in secret US documents

The FBI believed that a former Trump campaign advisor had ties to Russia as it sought to influence the 2016 US presidential election, a top secret documents released to US news organisations has revealed.

The October, 2016 application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court named Carter Page, a former foreign policy advisor to the campaign of Donald Trump, according to the documents which The New York Times published.

The newspaper, along with USA Today and others, filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to obtain the material, which the Justice Department released but with many details redacted.

"The FBI believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government," the initial FBI application says before it is blacked out and continues: "undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in violation of US criminal law."
The White House initially blocked release of a counter-memo from the Democrats, which argued the surveillance warrant request "was based on compelling evidence and probable cause."
Trump is not named in the document but identified only as "Candidate #1."