Washington: US President Donald Trump has denied reports that he did not share details of some his meetings with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, saying that he would not mind releasing those details.
“Well, I would (release details of the conversations with Putin)… I am not keeping anything under wraps,” Trump told ‘Fox News’ in an interview following a report by the ‘Washington Post’ that claimed he has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in administration.
“I don’t care. I mean I had a conversation like every President does, you sit with the President of various countries. We had a great conversation. 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,” he said.
“Why not release the conversation that you had with President Putin in Helsinki along with some other stuff?” he was asked by Fox News following the damaging report by ‘Washington Post’.
Trump described the news report as ‘ridiculous’.
“The Washington Post is almost as bad as probably as ‘The New York Times’. I have a one-on-one meeting with Putin like I do with every other leader and I had many one-on-ones. Nobody ever says anything about it,” he pointed out.
“I meet with every leader…individually. I meet with (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi. I meet with (Shinzo) Abe (of Japan), I meet with them. Nobody says anything. But, I meet with Putin, they make a big deal. Anybody could have listened to that meeting. That meeting is open for grabs,” Trump said, denying the ‘Post’ report.
The Post reported that Trump has gone to ‘extraordinary lengths’ to conceal details of his conversations with Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials.
PTI