US Congress calls for access to the details of the Trump-Putin talks

The heads of three key House of Representatives committees have asked the White House and the State Department for numerous documents about meetings and telephone conversations between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, writes “Voice of America«.

The committee chairmen, Democrats Adam Schiff, Elijah Cummings and Eliot Engel, also ask that interpreters involved in meetings and telephone conversations are available for questioning in their committees.

These legislators head the intelligence, surveillance and international affairs committees, respectively.

Their letter was preceded by another appeal to the White House in February in which they asked to answer a few questions about documents related to Trump's contacts with Putin. The White House was asked to provide answers no later than March 1, but no reply was received.

The heads of the three committees wrote to the acting head of the White House office, Miku Mulvaney, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that they are now expanding the investigation, requesting additional documents, and want to conduct additional surveys to study meetings and calls.

Democrats wrote that they wanted to know how these contacts influenced US foreign policy and whether the president or his administration tried to hide records of negotiations between the two leaders in violation of federal legislation.

"According to media reports, President Trump has repeatedly taken steps to conceal the details of his contacts with President Putin from other officials of the administration, Congress and the American people," write the heads of the committees.

“It was reported that the president took notes relating to at least one meeting with President Putin and instructed at least one American translator not to discuss with other federal officials the content of conversations with President Putin,” lawmakers explained.

“These allegations, if they prove to be true, cause deep concern related to national security, counterintelligence and foreign policy, especially in light of the ongoing Russian campaign of active measures on the undue influence on American elections,” they added.

In January, the Washington Post wrote that Trump personally intervened to hide the details of meetings with the Russian president, for example, the talks of the two leaders in Hamburg in 2017.

Photo: Facebook / The White HouseWhite House Photo by Shealah Craighead

The publication reported that Trump had made great efforts to hide the details of his conversations with Putin. Former and current US officials told the newspaper that in Hamburg, Trump even confiscated his translator's notes and forbade the translator to discuss the details of the meeting with other administration officials.

In another high-profile case, during the summit with the Russian leader in Helsinki last summer, Trump did not allow cabinet members and other assistants to be present in the room where his two-hour conversation with Putin took place. Only a translator was present at the meeting, and several officials thereafter stated that they did not receive a reliable statement of the contents of the meeting, the Washington Post reported.

In January, Trump told Fox News that he “doesn’t keep anything secret” and that he “doesn’t care at all” whether transcripts of the conversations will be published.

“Anyone could listen to the content of this meeting, it is accessible to all,” he said, referring to the Helsinki summit.

Democrats, however, have a very different opinion.

"When he takes the translator's notes and wants to destroy them so that no one can see the written transcript, this raises serious questions about the relationship between the current president and Putin," said Senator Dick Durbin, speaking in one of the January programs "This Week" on ABC channel.

The request of the heads of the three committees arrived a few hours after the chairman of the House Legal Committee Jerrold Nadler requested 80 individuals and organizations for documents related to the president, as part of the Trump investigation.