THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

The Mueller Investigation has revealed in a document released yesterday that Rick Gates was in frequent communication with a former Russian GRU agent.

A top Trump campaign official had repeated communications during the final weeks of the 2016 presidential race with a business associate tied to Russian intelligence, according to a document released on Tuesday by the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the election.

The campaign official, Rick Gates, had frequent phone calls in September and October 2016 with a person the F.B.I. believes had active links to Russian spy services at the time, the document said. Mr. Gates also told an associate the person “was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the G.R.U.,” the Russian military intelligence agency.

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, is investigating numerous contacts between President Trump’s advisers and Russians leading up to and after the November 2016 election. The document, filed in Mr. Mueller’s name, stated that the communications between Mr. Gates and the individual were “pertinent to the investigation.”

The individual is identified only as “Person A,” and the document describes him as someone who worked for Mr. Gates and Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman, as part of their earlier lobbying efforts in Kiev on behalf of the former pro-Russian president of Ukraine. The description of the person matches that of Konstantin V. Kilimnik, who for years was Mr. Manafort’s right-hand man in Ukraine.

Mr. Manafort has told associates that he does not believe that Mr. Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence, but the document released on Tuesday shows that Mr. Gates told others of his history in the intelligence services.

At the time of the calls, Mr. Gates was the Trump campaign’s liaison to the Republican National Committee and, before that, he was the campaign’s deputy chairman. Mr. Manafort served as the campaign chairman until August 2016, when he resigned amid the growing controversy about secret payments he had received for his lobbying in Ukraine.

The evidence revealed so far is circumstantial. Mueller may well have more detailed information about the meetings but it is nice to see a little humor in these events. The idea that a GRU agent may be considered "former" in Putin's Russia is a real laugher.