“According to one account, GCHQ’s then head, Robert Hannigan, passed material in summer 2016 to the CIA chief, John Brennan. The matter was deemed so sensitive it was handled at “director level”. After an initially slow start, Brennan used GCHQ information and intelligence from other partners to launch a major inter-agency investigation.”
Note Brennan’s faux mea culpa: “I was given bad information”.
The British-Russian game venue changed to the U.S. election of 2016. The covert empires of each continue an effort to remain relevant.