White House refuses to deny that Donald Trump gave classified info to Putin during secret G20 meeting
Donald Trump’s motivation for having a second informal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the G20 summit is still far from clear. But what is apparent is that Trump wanted to talk with Putin without Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, or even the U.S. government translator, present. That’s led to the suspicion that Trump may have wanted to give classified or other secret information to Putin. So what does the White House have to say about this?
Brian J. Karem, the reporter best known for telling off White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to her face during a briefing a few weeks back, shared the following from the latest briefing: “Sarah Sanders said she trusts Kremlin translator’s accuracy – has no idea if POTUS discussed classified material with Putin in second meeting” (link). One would think that the White House would immediately and confidently deny any such accusation. But in this case she’s unwilling to issue that denial. And that’s with good reason.
As Palmer Report pointed out yesterday, Putin’s decision to bring an English-speaking translator to the dinner, when he wasn’t even supposed to have been communicating with any English speakers, gives away that Trump and Putin had arranged this dinner meeting in advance (link). That became even more apparent when video emerged of Trump giving some kind of secret hand signal to Putin from across the table (link), signaling their meeting.
And of course when Donald Trump met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Oval Office earlier this year, Trump promptly gave them classified intel that the United States had received from Israel. So even Sarah Huckabee Sanders has likely figured out that Trump arranged the secret second G20 meeting in order to improperly give some kind of valuable intel to Putin. It’s why she refused to deny it when asked.
