MOSCOW slammed new reports yesterday alleging that US President Donald Trump’s campaign team had a number of contacts with Russian spies, with the Kremlin’s spokesman describing the claims as “laughable.”

The New York Times reported the allegations yesterday which cite anonymous US government officials saying that members of Mr Trump’s team communicated with Russian intelligence agents during the presidential campaign.

That echoed unsubstantiated claims by the outgoing Obama government that Russia had used computer hackers to influence the outcome of November’s election.

“Those reports are not based on concrete facts,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “There are five different sources in the story and none is named. So you see, really laughable stories are now given a go.”

Mr Trump hit back via Twitter before dawn yesterday, calling it an attempt to excuse Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s election failure.

A former US Marine and Democratic member of the House of Representatives Seth Moulton said the unconfirmed allegations could amount to “treason.”

He told CNN: “If members of the administration are essentially conspiring with Russia — either through the campaign earlier or now in the administration itself…that’s the very definition of treason.”

The claims came less than 48 hours after the national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned over reports he misled the vice-president and other officials about his phone calls with the Russian ambassador.

In Mr Flynn’s resignation letter he admitted that he had given “incomplete information” adding fuel to concerns that they unlawfully discussed Russian sanctions.

Congress Democrats and Republicans demanded an inquiry on Tuesday into how much Mr Trump knew, as more anonymous White House officials told the media he was aware of Mr Flynn’s indiscretions weeks ago.

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