- As president, Biden now has access to all the notes from Trump’s calls with Putin.
- A former Trump official told Politico that Biden “owns” the notes.
- The White House of Biden did not say whether he had reviewed these memoranda.
- Visit the Insider Business Department for more stories.
During Donald Trump’s four years as president, he was extremely vigilant about his phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which numbered at least a dozen. According to several reports, he kept notes of the calls in a mysterious computer system and delayed the American public over conversations.
But he will no longer be able to hide what has been said now that President Joe Biden is in the White House.
Politico reported on Tuesday that once a new president is sworn in, they have access to the full memoranda of the conversation – or ‘memoranda’ – written during previous presidencies, which are detailed notes during calls with world leaders.
A former Trump White House official told Politico that Biden’s national security team did not need our approval to see it. [records]. “
President Joe Biden at the Oval Office on February 9, 2021.
Pete Marovich-Pool / Getty Images
“Biden owns all the calling materials. There is only one president at a time,” the former Trump official said.
One former Trump White House official told Politico that the records did not leave before Trump, but that they were handed over to the National Archives and Records Administration as usual.
Read more: Within the Democrats’ plans to make sure there is no Trump 2.0
The Biden White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did it tell Politico whether he saw the content of Trump’s calls with Putin.
But a former national security official, described as close to Biden, told Politico: “It’s a national security priority to find out what Trump told Putin.”
“Some things, like what happened in some face-to-face meetings where no American translator or recorder was present, may never be completely known. But I would be very surprised if the new national security team did not try to gain access. “they,” the source told Politico.
But a former Trump White House official disagrees with the logic, telling Politico: “There are certain things that a president and his immediate staff should have the privilege of doing the job of government, without constantly subjecting to partisan playfulness. “
In a typical way for a US president, Trump had a very warm relationship with Putin, who often praised the Russian president’s leadership style.
The Trump-Putin relationship has raised questions about whether Russia’s interference in the 2016 election may have included collusion between Russia and the Trump team.
A special advocacy inquiry into the matter, conducted by Robert Mueller, has acted like a ghost over much of Trump’s tenure, but Mueller eventually said there was not enough evidence to charge anyone from the Trump campaign for illegal conspiracy or coordination with the Russian government. .
Meanwhile, Biden’s first call with Putin meant a change of tone in the White House. During the call, Biden Putin presses on Russian election interference, the SolarWinds cap and the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.