Tag: Helsinki Summit

House GOP rejects bill to make Trump turn over docs from Putin meeting

What are Republicans so scared to uncover?

President Trump, left, and Russian President Putin after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. Credit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

The secretive summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in July will remain shrouded in secrecy, thanks to the complicit GOP majority in Congress.

Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee rejected a request Thursday from Democratic lawmakers to access details about the one-on-one meeting in July that even Trump’s own intelligence chiefs weren’t briefed on afterward.

The procedural resolution would have compelled the executive branch to turn over “copies of all documents, records, communications, transcripts, summaries, notes, memoranda, and read-aheads” that may shed light on Trump’s discussions with Putin, including whether he made any agreements or promises to the Russian president.

View the complete September 14 article by Caroline Orr on the ShareBlue.com website here.

How U.S. intelligence agencies can find out what Trump told Putin

The following article by Josh Meyer was posted on the Politico website July 23, 2018:

A top-secret Special Collection Service has extraordinary capabilities to hoover up intel from foreign adversaries.

Intelligence officers are hamstrung because even if they’re able to get a full account of President Trump’s meeting with Russian President Putin, they would be limited in how they could use it without risking Trump’s wrath. Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Photo

President Donald Trump’s insistence on holding a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin hobbled U.S. intelligence agencies that would usually get an intimate look at such a sit-down, but American spies still have extraordinary capabilities to piece together what was discussed.

That’s in large part due to the existence of a top-secret U.S. collection service that specializes in tapping adversaries’ communications on the fly, including those of Putin’s entourage at last week’s summit in Helsinki.

Privately, sources familiar with U.S. intelligence capabilities expressed confidence that the so-called Special Collection Service scooped up not only Putin’s readout of the two-hour meeting, but what the Kremlin’s top spymasters really think about it — and how they’re spinning it to their foreign counterparts.

View the complete article here.

Ivanka’s attempt to cover for Trump’s treason backfired spectacularly

The following article by Tommy Christiopher was posted on the ShareBlue.com website July 22, 2018:

Credit: White House

Ivanka Trump’s cynical attempt at damage control just proved once again that she is no ‘moderating’ influence on Trump.

Ivanka Trump often tries to take credit for being a positive influence on Trump, but she proved once again this week that her efforts are just for show.

Buried in a New York Times report this weekend was this detail: Ivanka suggested using a sham event celebrating “America’s workers” to distract from Trump’s disastrous attempts to cover for his arguably treasonous conduct with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin:

View the complete article here.

What happened in Helsinki? We still don’t know.

The following article by Ishaan Tharoor was posted on the Washington Post website July 23, 2018:

0It’s been a week since President Trump met his Russian counterpart in Helsinki, and Washington is still dealing with the rancor and confusion that resulted. American foreign-policy officials were stunned by Trump’s behavior, which ranged from rejecting his intelligence community’s assessment that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 election to considering, albeit briefly, handing over a number of current and former American diplomats for questioning by Russian authorities. His performance earned rebukes from lawmakers and former officials, and even a retort from his own director of national intelligence.

Despite the fallout, the White House issued a surprise invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Washington later this year. The prospect of a second summit also surprised official Washington, not least because there are still so many questions about what transpired during the first. Before staging their now-infamous news conference in the Finnish capital, Trump and Putin held a two-hour private discussion, accompanied only by interpreters. Even key officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, have been left in the dark. Continue reading “What happened in Helsinki? We still don’t know.”

Putin summit puts spotlight back on Trump’s tax returns

The following article by Naomi Jagoda was posted on the Hill website July 22, 2018:

Credit: Rep. Bill Pascrell

President Trump’s tax returns are back in the spotlight after his private one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump’s comments during a joint press conference with Putin on Monday alarmed lawmakers, leading some to wonder about the president’s possible financial ties to Russia.

Democrats have since stepped up their calls to have Congress request Trump’s tax returns from the Treasury Department in order to learn more about the president’s finances.

View the complete article here.

Americans give Trump negative marks for Helsinki performance, poll finds

The following article by Scott Clement and Dan Balz was posted on the Washington Post website July 22, 2018:

But public reaction nationally appears more muted than in Washington, where Trump faced withering bipartisan criticism for appearing to side with Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies at a July 16 news conference in Helsinki. Most Americans do not think Trump went “too far” in supporting Putin, and while more Americans say U.S. leadership has gotten weaker under Trump, his ratings on this question are slightly improved from last fall.

The findings indicate that while Trump was judged critically for his summit performance, the event has not at this time proved to be a significant turning point in his presidency, despite the sharp criticism he received in the hours and days after the meeting and the multiple efforts by White House officials and the president to clarify his remarks in Helsinki. The poll results suggest that overall attitudes toward the president have hardened on both sides and that major events produce only modest changes in his overall standing, if any.

The Post-ABC poll conducted Wednesday through Friday finds that overall, 33 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of his meeting with Putin while 50 percent disapprove. A sizable 18 percent say they have no opinion. A slightly larger 56 percent disapprove of Trump expressing doubts about U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia tried to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. On both questions, those who say they “strongly disapprove” of Trump’s performance outnumber those who say they “strongly approve” by better than 2 to 1.

View the complete article here.

Pentagon put in bind after Trump-Putin summit

The following article by Ellen Mitchell and Rebecca Kheel was posted on the Hill website July 21, 2018:

The Pentagon has been caught flat-footed after President Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, with defense officials struggling to explain statements coming out of Moscow that the two leaders reached agreements involving military issues.

Adding to the angst, Defense Secretary James Mattis has kept a low profile amid backlash to Trump’s comments in Europe. While he met with his counterparts there, Mattis remained offstage for the president’s trip and was not in attendance at this week’s Cabinet meeting.

Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general and former NATO commander, has made no secret of his opinion of Russia, telling reporters traveling with him last week that Moscow has chosen to “undermine the fabric of nations that are young in their democratic processes … whether through false news reporting, economic strictures and interventions.”

View the complete article here.

The Memo: Summit fallout hits White House

The following articl by Niall Stanage was posted on the Hill website July 21, 2018:

President Trump has endured one of the worst weeks of his tenure since Monday’s disastrous press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin — and he is not out of the woods yet.

The initial storm over the news conference was prolonged by a series of missteps and fresh controversies for the administration.

Trump’s subsequent invite to Putin to visit Washington in the fall was met with consternation even by many Republicans. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was apparently taken by surprise when the news of the invite was given to him at a live event in Aspen, Colo., by Andrea Mitchell of NBC News.

View the complete article here.

Trump’s Putin fallout: Inside the White House’s tumultuous week of walk-backs

The following article by Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey and Carol D. Leonnig was posted on the Washington Post website July 21, 2018:

Over the course of three days, President Trump commented on Russian election interference in ways that repeatedly contradicted his own intelligence officials. Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

Executive time began early on Thursday, just after sunrise.

Feeling exasperated and feisty as he awoke in the White House residence, President Trump fired off his grievances on Twitter about how the media had been covering his Helsinki summit. And, refusing to be cowed, Trump gave national security adviser John Bolton an order: to schedule a second summit and officially invite Russian President Vladi­mir Putin to visit Washington.

The two presidents had already discussed the likelihood of a follow-up meeting, but at Trump’s direction Thursday morning, Bolton sprang into action to make it official, making an overture to the Kremlin. By ­midafternoon the White House announced that planning was underway for a fall summit in Washington.

View the complete post here.

GOP to White House: End summit mystery

The following article by Alexander Bolton was posted on the Hill website July 21, 2018:

Credit: J. Scott Applewhite, AP

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are worried that Russian President Vladimir Putin may use his one-on-one meeting with President Trump in Helsinki to drive a wedge between NATO allies by claiming secret side deals with the United States.

Congressional Republicans are urging the White House to get ahead of the Kremlin by defining what was and wasn’t agreed to. What was said between the two leaders, they admit, remains a disconcerting mystery.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) says he has “no idea” what Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov meant when he said Wednesday that Trump and Putin had entered into “important verbal agreements.”

View the complete article here.