A scandal over Donald Trump's Russian contacts escalates in the US. American media, citing former and current US officials familiar with the situation, reported that during the last seven months of presidential campaign, ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn and other members of Trump's presidential campaign contacted Russian officials at least 18 times over phone and through letters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to provide a transcript of a controversial Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, raising the stakes in an affair that has sent the White House into a tailspin. The intervention by Putin could turn up the pressure on the White House to provide its own transcript of the meeting, CNN writes in an article "Putin offers transcript of Trump meeting with Lavrov". The Senate intelligence committee has already demanded a briefing on what was said at the meeting from members of the Trump administration who were present. The episode is the latest woe for Trump, whose administration is engulfed in a series of scandals linked to Russia. His meeting with Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak came a day after Trump fired FBI director James Comey, the man leading an investigation into contentious links between members of the President's campaign team and Russia. Trump has admitted sharing security information on terrorism and aviation safety with the Russians, saying he had the "absolute right" to do so, but the White House has not confirmed or denied whether that information was classified.
The Washington Post first reported the allegations on Monday, saying that Trump described details to Lavrov and Kislyak about how ISIS hopes to use laptop computers as bombs on planes. Two sources told CNN that the information was classified. According to US and diplomatic officials, Israeli intelligence was a source for some of the information about ISIS bomb-making capabilities. Trump's meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak came as the White House deals with a series of scandals linking members of Trump's team with Russia. The FBI has confirmed it is investigating these links. "At no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed and the President did not disclose any military operations that weren't already publicly known," Trump's national security adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters Monday night.
Speaking at a press conference in Sochi, Russia, Putin dismissed allegations that Trump had shared top-secret security intelligence with Russian diplomats as "political schizophrenia". "I think we need to come up with some sort of punishment for him, because he didn't share this secret information, not with us, not with the special services. This is really not nice of him," Putin joked, laughing with Lavrov, who was also at the conference.
But he then took a more serious tone, accusing Americans of "rocking the internal political situation in the US under anti-Russian slogans". "They either don't understand that they are harming their country -- which makes them just dumb -- or they understand, which makes them dangerous and dirty."
