Russia's Putin offers transcript of White House meeting

Russia's Putin offers transcript of White House meeting

Vatican Radio) Russia's President Vladimir Putin says Moscow is prepared to provide a record of a White House meeting in which U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly shared classified intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. 

The announcement comes at a time when at least some lawmakers want to impeach Trump over this and other scandals. Putin made the comments at a press conference with Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Putin tried to convince reporters that U.S. President Donald Trump had not shared any secrets during a meeting in Washington with Russian officials. He even offered to prove it by supplying Congress with a transcript of talks between Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. 

Putin joked that he'll "be forced to issue Lavrov with a reprimand because he did not share these secrets with him nor with representatives of Russia's intelligence services" adding that "It was very bad of him." 

And President Putin said: "If the U.S. administration considers it possible, we are ready to provide a record of Lavrov's conversation with Trump" to U.S. lawmakers, "If the American administration wants this, of course."

Putin's remarks came a day after political tension in Washington increased again following reports that Trump appealed to FBI Director James Comey in February to drop an investigation into Michael Flynn, the national security adviser who was forced out after making misleading statements about his contacts with a Russian Ambassador. 

WRITTEN RECORD

A senior Kremlin aide, Yury Ushakov, later said that Putin was talking about a written record of the meeting, not an audio recording.

U.S. media have reported that during his May 10 meeting with Lavrov, Trump disclosed highly classified information received from a U.S. ally -- reportedly Israel -- about a planned operation by the extremist group Islamic State.

Trump is facing a growing number of Democratic law makers who have called for a special prosecutor to conduct an independent investigation into the Trump administration’s ties to Russia, to urging impeachment proceedings for the president.

Critics have called it the biggest scandal since President Richard Nixon was forced to resign over the Wategate Scandal in the 1970s. 

Several Republicans have also expressed concerns about scandals in the White House and Trump's alleged ties to Russia which has been accused of trying to influence the recent U.S. presidential election.

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