Trump calls for Pelosi-Russia inquiry

President, in tweet, seeks investigation into 2010 photo with ambassador

President Trump called Friday afternoon on Twitter for his second investigation of the day after a 2010 photo of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi emerged that showed her meeting with the Russian ambassador to the United States after she said she had not done so.

In an interview Friday morning with Politico’s Playbook, Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said she had never met with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

“Not with this Russian ambassador, no,” Pelosi told Politico.

But shortly after the interview, a photo uncovered by Politico seemed to contradict her. It depicts a 2010 bipartisan affair with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in which Pelosi was seated at a table across from Kislyak.

Kislyak is now at the center of allegations he met with Trump advisers, including U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, during the presidential campaign. Russian officials have been accused of meddling in the election to help Trump win.

“I hereby demand a second investigation, after (Senate

Minority Leader Chuck) Schumer, of Pelosi for her close ties to Russia, and lying about it,” Trump tweeted in his third attempt in 15 minutes. Two previous tweets misspelled “hereby.”

In a reply, Pelosi said that Trump doesn’t know the difference between her open 2010 meeting with Russian leaders and that of Sessions’ secret one.

Trump’s earlier Twitter attack of Schumer, R-N.Y., stemmed from a 14-year-old photo the president tweeted Friday of Schumer meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin for doughnuts.

In a rebuttal tweet, Schumer said his meeting took place in public, adding a challenge to Trump and his administration to discuss under oath their own alleged ties to Russia.

In an interview, a spokesman for Pelosi clarified her answer to Politico, saying the congresswoman believed the news group’s reporters were asking about “one on one” meetings with the Russian ambassador.

The spokesman, Drew Hammill, said that the meeting in the U.S. Capitol building, which also included then-Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., was comparing “apples to oranges” to the kind of secret, closed-to-themedia meeting that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions staged with his senior staffers and Kislyak.

A transcript of Pelosi’s remarks at the 2010 gathering, which was provided by her office shortly after the meeting, suggested nothing out of the ordinary. It is not illegal or uncommon for U.S. politicians to meet with ambassadors or foreign heads of state.

According to the transcript, Pelosi thanked Medvedev — with Kislyak seated across from her — for his “leadership to secure and reduce nuclear stockpiles,” as well as pursuing a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and imposing sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

Hammill said, citing a review of Pelosi’s schedule, that she had not since met with Kislyak or other Russian heads of state since 2010 in a similar small setting.

Pelosi, like other politicians, has since attended larger meetings with hundreds of people where Kislyak was present, Hammill said — including ones between House Democrats and half a dozen diplomats, including Kislyak, on the Iran deal with about 200 attendees.

“I don’t know if you consider that a meeting,” Hammill said. “I don’t.”