Oval Office photo with Russians criticized as threat
NEW YORK - The White House is facing criticism for a possible security breach after it allowed a Russian news service photographer into the Oval Office to snap photos of President Donald Trump and a pair of top Russian officials.
While the administration downplayed the threat, a senior administration official acknowledged that the White House had been misled about the role of the Russian photographer, who was actually employed by a state-run news agency. The official requested anonymity to discuss matters of security.
The photographer who stood feet from Trump as he talked with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, had told the White House that he was Lavrov’s official photographer, the administration official said.
But he did not say that he also works for Tass, a Russian state-run news agency. And White House officials were surprised when photos depicting an apparently jovial moment between Trump and the two Russian officials appeared online a short time after Wednesday’s meeting, according to the official. There had been no plans to immediately broadcast images from the meeting.
The chummy photos left some observers agog, particularly coming a day after the president fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been running the investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russian officials.
The Kremlin has hidden bugs in sensitive U.S. facilities in the past. During President Bill Clinton’s term, a listening device was discovered in a conference room at the State Department where Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other top diplomats routinely held meetings.