Trump signs deals in S Arabia as revelations fly in Russia probe
NOT SHY OF CONTROVERSY US President called Comey a ‘nut job’ in last week’s meet with Russian officials
: Investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections and alleged collusion by Donald Trump’s campaign aides have identified a “significant person of interest” who is currently serving in the White House as a senior adviser to the president and is considered close to him.
The person has not been named.
This revelation by the Washington Post came around the same time as the New York Times reported Trump described former FBI director James Comey as a “nut job” to Russian officials he met last week, and told them his dismissal had taken the pressure off him.
“I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Trump told Russia foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to a transcript of the conversation read out to The New York Times by an official.
These explosive new revelations broke soon after Trump left for his first overseas tour as president.
Though the White House reacted — not disputing either story vigorously — there was no response from Trump after he landed in Riyadh as he and his team plunged straight into the bilateral visit, starting with a grand reception given by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman at the airport.
The two countries signed defence cooperation agreements worth $110 billion effective immediately and $350 billion over 10 years, according to the White House. There were other deals that were done by private sector firms separately.
The mood in the travelling delegation appeared upbeat — Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner was seen giving national security adviser HR McMaster a high-five, after a lavish lunch and just before the start of bilateral meetings.
A major highlight of the Saudi leg of the five-nation, nine-day trip is expected to be a speech by Trump on Sunday, in which he is expected to urge the Muslim for unity in the fight against radicalism, which he will frame as “battle between good and evil”. He will tone down his anti-Muslim rhetoric, according to the Associated Press, that was given access to a draft of the speech.
Back in the US, the new revelations overshadowed the trip.
The “person of interest” identified is in the White House, ruling out Michael Flynn and campaign aides who are all long gone. Senior adviser Jared Kushner, attorney general Jeff Sessions and secretary of state Rex Tillerson are the currently serving officials with known prior contacts with Russians.
But the Washington Post said this new turn in the investigation did not indicate criminal charges were either necessarily near or imminent.
That call might be former FBI director Robert Mueller’s, who has been named special counsel to head the investigation of the Russian meddling.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said in a statement: “As the president has stated before, a thorough investigation will confirm that there was no collusion between the campaign and any foreign entity.”