The law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest, showing that the probe is reaching into the highest levels of government, according to people familiar with the matter. 
 
 The senior White House adviser under scrutiny by investigators is someone close to the president, according to these people, who would not further identify the official. 
 
 The revelation comes as the investigation appears to be entering a more overtly active phase, with investigators shifting from work that has remained largely hidden from the public to conducting interviews and using a grand jury to issue subpoenas. The intensity of the probe is expected to accelerate in the coming weeks, the people said. 
 
 The sources emphasized that investigators remain keenly interested in people who previously wielded influence in the Trump campaign and administration but are no longer part of it, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. 
 
 Flynn resigned in February after disclosures that he had lied to administration officials about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Current administration officials who have acknowledged contacts with Russian officials include President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. 
 
 (Peter Stevenson,Jason Aldag,Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post) 
 
 [Graphic: What we know so far about Team Trump’s ties to Russian interests] 
 
 People familiar with the investigation said the intensifying effort does not mean criminal charges are near, or that any such charges will result. Earlier this week, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein appointed former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III to serve as special counsel and lead the investigation into Russian meddling. 
 
 It is unclear exactly how Mueller’s leadership will affect the direction of the probe, and he is already bringing in new people to work on the team. Those familiar with the case said its significance had increased before Mueller’s appointment. 
 
 Although the case began quietly last July as an effort to determine whether any Trump associates coordinated with Russian operatives to meddle in the presidential election campaign, the investigative work now being done by the FBI also includes determining whether any financial crimes were committed by people close to the president. The people familiar with the matter said the probe has sharpened into something more fraught for the White House, the FBI and the Justice Department — particularly because of the public steps investigators know they now need to take, the people said. 
 
 When subpoenas are issued or interviews are requested, it is possible the people being asked to talk or provide documents will reveal publicly what they were asked about. 
 
 A small group of lawmakers known as the Gang of Eight was notified of the change in tempo and focus in the investigation at a classified briefing Wednesday evening, the people familiar with the matter said. Then-FBI Director James B. Comey publicly confirmed the existence of the investigation in March. 
 
 Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said, “I can’t confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of investigations or targets of investigations.” An FBI spokesman declined to comment. 
 
 White House spokesman Sean Spicer said, “As the president has stated before, a thorough investigation will confirm that there was no collusion between the campaign and any foreign entity.’’ 
 
 While there has been a loud public debate in recent days over the question of whether the president might have attempted to obstruct justice in his private dealings with Comey, whom Trump fired last week, people familiar with the matter said investigators on the case are more focused on Russian influence operations and possible financial crimes. 
 
 The FBI’s investigation seeks to determine whether and to what extent Trump associates were in contact with Kremlin operatives, what business dealings they might have had in Russia, and whether they in any way facilitated the hacking and publishing of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, during the presidential campaign. Several congressional committees are also investigating, though their probes could not produce criminal charges. 
 
 [Appointment of Mueller could complicate other probes into alleged Russian meddling] 
 
 A grand jury in Alexandria, Va., recently issued a subpoena for records related to Flynn’s business, the Flynn Intel Group, which was paid more than $500,000 by a company owned by a Turkish American businessman close to top Turkish officials, according to people familiar with the matter. 
 
 The Flynn Intel Group was paid for research on Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who Turkey’s current president believes was responsible for a coup attempt last summer. Flynn retroactively registered with the Justice Department in March as a paid foreign agent for Turkish interests. 
 
 Separately from the probe now run by Mueller, Flynn is being investigated by the Pentagon’s top watchdog for his foreign payments. Flynn also received $45,000 to appear in 2015 with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner for RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization. 
 
 Flynn discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with Russia’s ambassador to the United States during the month before Trump took office, and he withheld that fact from the vice president. That prompted then-acting attorney general Sally Yates to warn the White House’s top lawyer that Flynn might be susceptible to blackmail. Flynn stepped down after The Washington Post reported on the contents of the call. 
 
 The president has nonetheless seemed to defend his former adviser. A memo by Comey alleged that Trump asked that the probe into Flynn be shut down. 
 
 [Notes made by FBI Director Comey say Trump pressured him to end Flynn probe] 
 
 The White House also has acknowledged that Kushner met with Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, in late November. Kushner also has acknowledged that he met with the head of a Russian development bank, Vnesheconombank, which has been under U.S. sanctions since July 2014. The president’s son-in-law initially omitted contacts with foreign leaders from a national security questionnaire, though his lawyer has said publicly he submitted the form prematurely and informed the FBI soon after that he would provide an update. 
 
 Vnesheconombank handles development for the state, and in early 2015, a man purporting to be one of its New York-based employees was arrested and accused of being an unregistered spy. 
 
 That man — Evgeny Buryakov — ultimately pleaded guilty and was eventually deported. He had been in contact with former Trump adviser Carter Page, though Page has said he shared only “basic immaterial information and publicly available research documents” with the Russian. Page was the subject of a secret warrant last year issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, based on suspicions he might have been acting as an agent of the Russian government, according to people familiar with the matter. Page has denied any wrongdoing, and accused the government of violating his civil rights. 
 
 Ellen Nakashima and Ashley Parker contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 What’s next in the Russia investigation? The week’s biggest bombshells. 
 
 White House offers shifting explanations of Trump’s disclosures to Russians 
 
 Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador ||||| Trump Hosts Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov And Ambassador Kislyak At White House 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Alexander Shcherbak/TASS/Getty Images Alexander Shcherbak/TASS/Getty Images 
 
 President Trump hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the White House on Wednesday, one day after firing the man whose agency is investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 election that brought Trump to power. 
 
 Trump fired now-former FBI Director James Comey, who told Congress earlier this year that his agency has been investigating Russia's actions — and possible ties to anyone associated with the Trump campaign — since July. As NPR's Domenico Montanaro reports, the firing of Comey with more than six years left on his term in office has prompted a flurry of questions about the president's motives — and about what's next. 
 
 Lavrov's meeting with the president was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET, and it was declared closed to the press. Russian agencies tweeted photos from the Oval Office showing that in addition to Lavrov, Trump shook hands with Russia's ambassador to America, Sergey Kislyak — a key figure in the investigation into Trump's ousted national security adviser, Michael Flynn. 
 
 After the Lavrov session had concluded, members of the U.S. media were allowed into the Oval Office, where they found the president sitting with Henry Kissinger, who served as President Richard Nixon's secretary of state. The meeting hadn't been listed on the president's official schedule. 
 
 Trump said he and Kissinger had met to talk "about Russia and various other matters," according to the pool report. 
 
 To a question about Comey, Trump reportedly replied, "He wasn't doing a good job. Very simply. He was not doing a good job." 
 
 The president also said the issue had not affected his meeting with Lavrov. 
 
 Lavrov arrived in Washington on Tuesday. He met with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the White House early Wednesday, ahead of his visit to the Oval Office. 
 
 Tillerson and Lavrov made a brief appearance Wednesday morning for a photo-op, and as Tillerson began to lead his guest back behind closed doors, Lavrov responded to a question about Comey's firing. 
 
 When a reporter asked whether the dismissal has "cast a shadow" over their talks, Lavrov stopped and seemed to look genuinely quizzical when he responded, "Was he fired?" — but then adopted a deadpan tone as he told the reporter, "You are kidding, you are kidding." 
 
 With a theatrical twitch of his head, the Russian diplomat then followed his American counterpart away from the media. The exchange was not included in the State Department's brief video snippet from the photo-op that it posted to Twitter. 
 
 Tillerson's office said his talks with Lavrov would focus on "Ukraine, Syria, and bilateral issues." But the Russians' visit to the White House also came as the Kremlin made its first public comments on Comey's removal. 
 
 When Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked how the firing might affect U.S.-Russia relations, Peskov replied, "We hope that it will not affect them at all. That's the United States' internal affair. That's the U.S. president's independent decision, which has nothing to do and should have nothing to do with Russia." 
 
 Comey's dismissal has sparked new calls for an independent probe into Russia's attempts to influence last year's U.S. presidential election — despite the Trump administration's assertion that Comey was removed over his handling of the investigation into Clinton's private email server. 
 
 "This is nothing less than Nixonian," said Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 
 
 Announcing Comey's abrupt firing Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the president "acted based on the clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions." ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters. 
 
 The previously undisclosed interactions form part of the record now being reviewed by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia. 
 
 Six of the previously undisclosed contacts described to Reuters were phone calls between Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, and Trump advisers, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, three current and former officials said. 
 
 Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said. 
 
 In January, the Trump White House initially denied any contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign. The White House and advisers to the campaign have since confirmed four meetings between Kislyak and Trump advisers during that time. 
 
 The people who described the contacts to Reuters said they had seen no evidence of wrongdoing or collusion between the campaign and Russia in the communications reviewed so far. But the disclosure could increase the pressure on Trump and his aides to provide the FBI and Congress with a full account of interactions with Russian officials and others with links to the Kremlin during and immediately after the 2016 election. 
 
 The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Flynn’s lawyer declined to comment. In Moscow, a Russian foreign ministry official declined to comment on the contacts and referred Reuters to the Trump administration. 
 
 Separately, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Washington said: “We do not comment on our daily contacts with the local interlocutors.” 
 
 The 18 calls and electronic messages took place between April and November 2016 as hackers engaged in what U.S. intelligence concluded in January was part of a Kremlin campaign to discredit the vote and influence the outcome of the election in favor of Trump over his Democratic challenger, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. 
 
 Those discussions focused on mending U.S.-Russian economic relations strained by sanctions imposed on Moscow, cooperating in fighting Islamic State in Syria and containing a more assertive China, the sources said. 
 
 Members of the Senate and House intelligence committees have gone to the CIA and the National Security Agency to review transcripts and other documents related to contacts between Trump campaign advisers and associates and Russian officials and others with links to Putin, people with knowledge of those investigations told Reuters. 
 
 The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it had appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential campaign and possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Mueller will now take charge of the FBI investigation that began last July. Trump and his aides have repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia. 
 
 President Donald Trump (L-R), joined by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Mike Pence, senior advisor Steve Bannon, Communications Director Sean Spicer and then National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, speaks by phone with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst 
 
 ‘IT’S RARE’ 
 
 In addition to the six phone calls involving Kislyak, the communications described to Reuters involved another 12 calls, emails or text messages between Russian officials or people considered to be close to Putin and Trump campaign advisers. 
 
 One of those contacts was by Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian oligarch and politician, according to one person with detailed knowledge of the exchange and two others familiar with the issue. 
 
 It was not clear with whom Medvedchuk was in contact within the Trump campaign but the themes included U.S.-Russia cooperation, the sources said. Putin is godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter. 
 
 Medvedchuk denied having any contact with anyone in the Trump campaign. 
 
 “I am not acquainted with any of Donald Trump’s close associates, therefore no such conversation could have taken place,” he said in an email to Reuters. 
 
 In the conversations during the campaign, Russian officials emphasized a pragmatic, business-style approach and stressed to Trump associates that they could make deals by focusing on common economic and other interests and leaving contentious issues aside, the sources said. 
 
 Veterans of previous election campaigns said some contact with foreign officials during a campaign was not unusual, but the number of interactions between Trump aides and Russian officials and others with links to Putin was exceptional. 
 
 “It’s rare to have that many phone calls to foreign officials, especially to a country we consider an adversary or a hostile power,” Richard Armitage, a Republican and former deputy secretary of state, told Reuters. 
 
 FLYNN FIRED 
 
 Beyond Medvedchuk and Kislyak, the identities of the other Putin-linked participants in the contacts remain classified and the names of Trump advisers other than Flynn have been “masked” in intelligence reports on the contacts because of legal protections on their privacy as American citizens. However, officials can request that they be revealed for intelligence purposes. 
 
 U.S. and allied intelligence and law enforcement agencies routinely monitor communications and movements of Russian officials. 
 
 Slideshow (5 Images) 
 
 After Vice President Mike Pence and others had denied in January that Trump campaign representatives had any contact with Russian officials, the White House later confirmed that Kislyak had met twice with then-Senator Jeff Sessions, who later became attorney general. 
 
 Kislyak also attended an event in April where Trump said he would seek better relations with Russia. Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, also attended that event in Washington. In addition, Kislyak met with two other Trump campaign advisers in July on the sidelines of the Republican convention. 
 
 Trump fired Flynn in February after it became clear that he had falsely characterized the nature of phone conversations with Kislyak in late December - after the Nov. 8 election and just after the Obama administration announced new sanctions on Russia. Flynn offered to testify to Congress in return for immunity from prosecution but his offer was turned down by the House intelligence committee.
– President Trump told Russian officials that firing James Comey took a "great pressure" off him in regard to the ongoing investigation into his campaign's possible collusion with Russia, the New York Times reports. He also told Russian officials the former FBI director was "crazy, a real nut job." The quotes come from a document summarizing Trump's May 10 meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office. The document is being treated as the official account of the meeting, and Sean Spicer didn't dispute its contents. It appears to be another incidence of Trump claiming he fired Comey because of the Russian investigation, contradicting the official reason given by the White House. One official says Trump was attempting a negotiating tactic on the Russians, making them feel bad about the political pressure they caused for him. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign now includes a current White House official as a significant person of interest. Sources close to the investigation say it's now looking at a senior White House adviser close to the president. While the official isn't being identified, current White House officials that have admitted to having contact with Russian officials include Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, and Rex Tillerson. While the investigation is ramping up to interviews and subpoenas, sources with knowledge of it say that doesn't mean criminal charges are a given.