Home WebMail Saturday, November 2, 2024, 12:22 AM | Calgary | -1.1°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Posted: 2019-09-28T01:10:10Z | Updated: 2019-09-28T13:52:30Z

Two news reports Friday evening further illuminated how President Donald Trump s White House has allegedly kept details about his communication with certain foreign leaders restricted to a small number of officials, just one day after a whistleblower complaint detailing the administrations efforts to hide his July 25 call with Ukraines president was released to the public.

According to a CNN report Friday, White House aides took remarkable steps to prevent Trumps phone calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian leader Vladimir Putin from being made public.

The call with Prince Mohammed took place in the aftermath of the murder of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi , which sparked international outrage. U.S. intelligence officials ultimately determined the Saudi government was behind the Saudi journalists killing .

A transcript of that call was never circulated to U.S. officials, as would have normally been the case, CNN reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

It wasnt immediately clear when the call with Putin took place, but CNN, citing a former Trump administration official, reported that access to that transcript was also heavily restricted.

The Washington Post reported Friday that White House officials also limited access to Trumps conversation with two senior Russian officials in the Oval Office in 2017. The president allegedly said during that meeting that he wasnt concerned about Moscows interference in the 2016 presidential election because the U.S. had done the same in other countries.

Only a handful of officials with the highest security clearances were allowed to see a summary of the meeting in an attempt to prevent it from being made public, the Post reported, citing former officials who asked to remain anonymous.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The reports follows the public release of a whistleblower complaint that alleged the Trump administration repeatedly stored records of the presidents calls in an electronic system reserved for especially sensitive classified information to protect him politically.

The White House specifically tried to lock down the presidents July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during which Trump urged Ukraines leader to investigate his political rival Joe Biden , according to the complaint.

White House lawyers instructed that the summary of the call be placed into a standalone computer system reserved for codeword-level intelligence information, such as covert action, the whistleblower wrote.

Your Support Has Never Been More Critical

Other news outlets have retreated behind paywalls. At HuffPost, we believe journalism should be free for everyone.

Would you help us provide essential information to our readers during this critical time? We can't do it without you.

You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest we could use your help again . We view our mission to provide free, fair news as critically important in this crucial moment, and we can't do it without you.

Whether you give once or many more times, we appreciate your contribution to keeping our journalism free for all.

You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest we could use your help again . We view our mission to provide free, fair news as critically important in this crucial moment, and we can't do it without you.

Whether you give just one more time or sign up again to contribute regularly, we appreciate you playing a part in keeping our journalism free for all.

Support HuffPost

The complaint noted: This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what transpired in the call.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call on Friday that he hoped Trumps call with Putin would not be made public, as a summary of the U.S. presidents call with Zelensky was earlier this week.

We would like to hope that things wont come to such situations in our bilateral relations, which already have plenty of quite serious problems, Peskov said. This is a rather unusual practice. As a rule, the materials from conversations on the level of the head of state are considered secret or top secret.