Hearing into Trump talks

THE US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee intends to hold hearings on meetings between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin and their “bizarre” relations, the committee’s chairman, Eliot Engel, said.

The Washington Post newspaper reported that Trump had concealed details about his conversations with the Russian leader from his administration. As a result, even classified documents did not contain detailed records of their conversations at five venues over the past two years.

“Every time Trump meets with Putin, the country is told nothing. America deserves the truth and the Foreign Affairs Committee will seek to get to the bottom of it. We will be holding hearings on the mysteries swirling around Trump’s bizarre relationship with Putin and his cronies, and how those dark dealings affect our national security,” Engel said.

Moreover, The New York Times newspaper reported earlier, citing law enforcement sources and other informed sources, that the FBI had opened a probe in 2017 into whether Trump could have secretly worked for Russia against his own country. The outlet noted, however, that there was no publicly presented evidence that Trump might have had secret contacts with Russian government officials or received instructions from them.

The US President, in turn, has denied both media reports, calling the New York Times article “insulting” and accusing The Washington Post of being “basically lobbyists for Amazon”.

Meanwhile, several parallel Russia-related investigations are under way in the US, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and claims that Trump colluded with Russia. | Sputnik