Trump discusses “Russian Hoax” in call with Putin

WASHINGTON» President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin discussed what Trump again dismissed as the “Russian Hoax” in their first known phone call since the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election meddling. Putin chuckled about Mueller’s findings, Trump said.

During their conversation Friday, which the White House and Kremlin said lasted more than an hour, they also discussed a possible three-party arms control pact with China, North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, Ukraine and the crisis in Venezuela, where Moscow is propping up the current government over the U.S.-backed opposition.

“We had a good conversation about many things,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump said the two leaders were considering a new nuclear agreement “where we make less and they make less. And maybe even where we get rid of some of the tremendous firepower that we have right now.” He said they had discussed the possibility of including China in the deal and that China would “very much would like to be a part of” it.

But more interesting, perhaps, was what was left unsaid.

Trump said that, at no point, did he warn Putin not to meddle in the next election. And while he and Putin did discuss Mueller’s findings, they appeared to gloss over Mueller’s description of the extensive efforts Russia took to interfere in the 2016 election, including the 25 Russians indicted for that effort.

“We discussed it,” Trump said of the report. “He actually sort of smiled when he said something to the effect that, ‘It started off as a mountain and it ended up being a mouse,’ ” Trump said. “But he knew that because he knew there was no collusion whatsoever. So pretty much that’s what it was.”

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders later said Trump didn’t tell Putin not to meddle in the 2020 election because he’s made that clear in the past. “He doesn’t need to do that every two seconds,” she said.

Mueller’s report concluded that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was “sweeping and systematic.” Ultimately, Mueller’s investigators did not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign, but they found multiple contacts. Indeed, the report concluded that “the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”