U.S. President Donald Trump has rejected a Washington Post report that he has refused to share details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin with top U.S. government officials.
Mr. Trump, in a telephone interview late on Saturday with Fox News, dismissed as “ridiculous” the Post story that alleged that he went to great lengths to hide the content of his talks with Mr. Putin, even confiscating the notes of his interpreter and ordering that person to not discuss what was said. Mr. Trump said he had “a great conversation” with Mr. Putin in Helsinki in July 2018.
When asked why he has not released details of the nearly two-hour conversation, Mr. Trump said: “I would, I don’t with care. “
“I mean, I had a conversation like every President does. You sit with the President of various countries... We were talking about Israel and securing Israel and lots of other things... I’m not keeping anything under wraps, I couldn’t care less. I mean, it’s so ridiculous.”
He added: “Anybody could have listened to that meeting, that meeting is up for grabs.”
According to the Post, there is no detailed record of Mr. Trump’s personal talks with Mr. Putin at five locations over the past two years. The newspaper quotes unnamed current and former government officials as sources for the story.
On probe by FBI
Mr. Trump also took aim at an earlier story in The New York Times stating that the FBI launched a previously undisclosed counterintelligence investigation to determine whether he posed a national security threat, at the same time that it opened a criminal probe into possible obstruction of justice.
The FBI investigation was later folded into the broader probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. Fox asked if he had ever worked for Russia. “I think it’s the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked,” he said, without directly answering the question.
He slammed the Times story as “the most insulting article I’ve ever had written and if you read the article, you’d see that they found absolutely nothing.”
No evidence has publicly emerged that Mr. Trump was secretly in contact with or took direction from Russian officials, The Times said.
The FBI had been suspicious of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign, but it held off on opening a probe until the President sacked James Comey, who refused to roll back the Russia investigation, The Times said.
