Once again - we learn it from the Russians

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday in an encounter the American side apparently wanted to keep under wraps.

The State Department made no announcement of the meeting, which took place in Lavrov's own dedicated meeting room at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof, where the major annual conference of politicians, policymakers and security experts is held. Pompeo's aides also did not provide any readout after the meeting ended.

Russian journalists traveling with Lavrov were aware of the meeting in advance, and wrote about it afterward.

Lavrov's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, confirmed the meeting in a Facebook post, which included a photo of Pompeo in a hallway of the hotel, and Lavrov standing in a doorway a few steps behind him.

In the post, Zakharova wrote that Pompeo had said "good luck" to those gathered in the hallway, and cheekily added that those who heard it "gasped."

[...]

A Russian journalist traveling with Lavrov said the U.S. side had requested that there be no press conference or joint statements and that photographers not even be invited to take a picture of the two top diplomats shaking hands.

[...]

Asked about the meeting by POLITICO, a State Department official confirmed that there had been a “pull aside” with Lavrov but gave no further details. The official denied that the State Department asked Russia not to publicize the meeting and said it did not normally issue readouts of "pull asides."

There was no mention of the meeting in a briefing by a senior administration official about U.S. efforts at the security conference. The official said Pompeo met with Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and that U.S. officials met with Israeli counterparts as well as with a senior EU foreign affairs official, Helga Schmid.

It was not immediately clear why the State Department did not disclose the meeting between Pompeo and his Russian counterpart in advance.

  Politico

They know the Russians publish these meetings. They're not doing it to keep them under wraps. They're doing it to poke a finger in our eyes; they don't care if we know it, they're just telling us they don't have any obligation to the American public.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Russian asset

He's a tool.

As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov returned home from his visit with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last week, Russian state media were gloating over the spectacle. TV channel Rossiya 1 aired a segment entitled “Puppet Master and ‘Agent’—How to Understand Lavrov’s Meeting With Trump.”

  Daily Beast

Respected again.

Vesti Nedeli, a Sunday news show on the same network, pointed out that it was Trump, personally, who asked Lavrov to pose standing near as Trump sat at his desk. It’s almost the literal image of a power behind the throne.

Exactly my thought on seeing the picture.

And in the meantime, much to Russia’s satisfaction, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is still waiting for that critical White House meeting with the American president.

They’ve also added a cynical new a narrative filled with half-joking ironies as they look at the American president’s bleak prospects when he does leave office. Appearing on Sunday Evening With Vladimir Soloviev, Mikhail Gusman, first deputy director general of ITAR-TASS, Russia’s oldest and largest news agency, predicted: “Sooner or later, the Democrats will come back into power. The next term or the term after that, it doesn’t matter... I have an even more unpleasant forecast for Trump. After the White House, he will face a very unhappy period.”

We have to get to that point first.  I wish I were as confident as others that we will.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Pompeo contradicts White House/Lavrov

Here's what the White House and Lavrov said:




As I said yesterday, I think they talked about how Russia is going to help Trump in 2020 and how they're going to blame it on Ukraine.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  White House reporter Zeke Miller provides this White House readout of the Trump-Lavrov-Pompeo meeting:

Toss-up

I don't believe either of them.  I think they talked about how Russia is going to help Trump in 2020 and how they're going to blame it on Ukraine.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 12/11:




White House reporter Zeke Miller provides this White House readout of the Trump-Lavrov-Pompeo meeting:

Now I understand the timing

This is why Trump brought Lavrov in for a presser:

Right in front of the Secretary of State, and he's allowed to say it unmolested?

Yeah, here's a better response:

Lavrov's answer was, "We read it.  There was no collusion." 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Trump will be meeting with Lavrov today

The last time he met with Lavrov, he passed on secret intel given to US agencies by the Israelis. 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The dam has burst

President Trump told two senior Russian officials in a 2017 Oval Office meeting that he was unconcerned about Moscow’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election because the United States did the same in other countries, an assertion that prompted alarmed White House officials to limit access to the remarks to an unusually small number of people, according to three former officials with knowledge of the matter.

The comments, which have not been previously reported, were part of a now-infamous meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in which Trump revealed highly classified information that exposed a source of intelligence on the Islamic State. He also said during the meeting that firing FBI Director James B. Comey the previous day had relieved “great pressure” on him.

A memorandum summarizing the meeting was limited to all but a few officials with the highest security clearances in an attempt to keep the president’s comments from being disclosed publicly, according to the former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

  WaPo

Everybody will be scrambling now to sing their way out of trouble.

Trump also seemed to invite Russia to interfere in other countries’ elections, they said.

[...]

According to the fourth former official, Trump lamented to Lavrov that “all this Russia stuff” was detrimental to good relations. Trump also complained, “I could have a great relationship with you guys, but you know, our press,” this former official said, characterizing the president’s remarks.

[...]

It is not clear whether a memo documenting the May 10, 2017, meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak was placed into [the same code-word server system as Trump's call to Zelensky mentioned in the whistleblower's complaint], but the three former officials said it was restricted to a very small number of people.

Getting larger all the time.

Trump's prep for Viet Nam summit

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the United States has asked Moscow’s advice in dealing with North Korea before a summit between President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader.

  AP News

That's probably not going to make the CIA any happier with him.

Lavrov, who is also visiting Vietnam this week, said in comments carried by Russian news agencies on Monday that Russia believes that the U.S. ought to offer Pyongyang “security guarantees” for the disarmament deal to succeed.

Now isn't that handy that Lavrov will also be in Viet Nam?

Meanwhile, last week, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe shared an anecdote in which U.S. officials tried to brief the American president on the capable range of North Korean ballistic missiles. Trump rejected their findings – because he’d received competing information from the Russian president.

  MSNBC

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving person

Trump's unpredictability and inflammatory comments (including about Tillerson) haven't made representing the U.S. abroad any easier, particularly with global approval of U.S. leadership plummeting under his administration.

[...]

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Ethiopia visiting the headquarters of the African Union Thursday, the first stop on his five-country tour of the continent. Per the NY Times, Tillerson's trip thus far, much like his recent visit to Latin America, has been marked by tense exchanges and calls to answer for the "shithole countries" remark Trump reportedly made in January.

[...]

Tillerson also railed against China, despite the fact that Chinese investments in Ethiopia total about $3.5 billion more than the U.S. in recent years. Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission, responded, "I think Africans are mature enough to engage in partnerships of their own volition."

  Axios

Oh zing. I bet Tillerson doesn't think they are.

Tillerson is also staying at the same hotel as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, but the pair reportedly have no plans to meet. Trolling Tillerson on Facebook, the Russian Embassy in Washington wrote, "This would be a great opportunity to discuss a range of accumulated issues on regional and global agenda not through the press, but directly.”

Hmmmm.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

There You Go...Starting Another Rumor

In an exclusive interview with NBC, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that it was possible that the two leaders “met even much more than just three times,” but stressed that such meetings wouldn’t have been significant – and certainly weren’t secretive.

He joked that the two could have gone “to the toilet together."

  RT

There'll be photoshop memes aplenty from that.

“When you are brought by your parents to a kindergarten, do you mix with the people who are waiting in the same room to start going to a classroom?” he asked.

“I remember when I was in that position, I did spend five or ten minutes in the kindergarten before they brought us to the classroom.”

Wait. What? Is he hinting at something here? Why is he talking about kindergarten? Jus who is he calling a baby?

“After the dinner was over… I was not there… President Trump apparently went to pick up his wife and spent some minutes with President Putin… so what?” he said, echoing the White House’s account of the encounter.

Yeah, Lav, you weren't there.

....but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Leaky, Leaky

President Trump told Russian officials in the Oval Office this month that firing the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, had relieved “great pressure” on him, according to a document summarizing the meeting.

“I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Mr. Trump said, according to the document, which was read to The New York Times by an American official. “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

Mr. Trump added, “I’m not under investigation.”

[...]

The White House document that contained Mr. Trump’s comments was based on notes taken from inside the Oval Office and has been circulated as the official account of the meeting. One official read quotations to The Times, and a second official confirmed the broad outlines of the discussion.

  NYT

The Times is out to be Trump's Number One Enemy, and proud of it.

What a dufus Trump is.  Still high off the power that allowed him to summarily dismiss James Comey, he's bragging about it the next day.  To the Russians.  I guess the case could be made by the faction that says he's colluding with the Russians to get and keep him in the White House that he was simply informing them that he pulled off the hit.  If the idiot isn't guilty of the collusion charges, he sure is making it appear that way.

The "Russian officials" included the Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, and Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak.

Who's leaking? If Trump can get his hands on that person, Jeff Sessions will prosecute. And if Trump can get Joe Lieberman (of all people) in as director of FBI, the search for that person will be a priority.

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, did not dispute the account.

[...]

“By grandstanding and politicizing the investigation into Russia’s actions, James Comey created unnecessary pressure on our ability to engage and negotiate with Russia,” Mr. Spicer said. “The investigation would have always continued, and obviously, the termination of Comey would not have ended it. Once again, the real story is that our national security has been undermined by the leaking of private and highly classified conversations.”

Yes, that's the REAL story.

Actually, it IS a story. A good one, too.

Behind closed doors, according to the document read by the official, Mr. Trump said that news stories about possible Russian collusion were fake, a comment he has repeatedly made in public. He told the Russians that his poll numbers remained strong and that Americans wanted the government to have a healthy relationship with Russia.

At one point, Mr. Trump jokingly asked whether there were reporters in the room.

“No,” Mr. Lavrov said. “No fake media.”

Trump didn't even realize the Russian news agency TASS was in attendance?!  Who was in charge of who got in?

Like the public meeting at a Mar-a-Lago restaurant where Trump discussed the North Korean missile launch with Japan's PM, the major threat to American national security is the entire Trump administration itself.

In fact, it was paramount that SOMEone leak something from that meeting since the American press was not allowed in.  Another action for the collusion folks to point to.  Christ, what an idiot.

While American reporters were prohibited from attending, the Russian news agency Tass distributed photographs of the meeting.

[...]

The Oval Office comment about Mr. Comey’s sanity echoed what Mr. Trump has said privately at other times. The Times reported the day after Mr. Comey was fired that the president had told aides there was “something wrong with” Mr. Comey.

Ha! Something wrong. He wouldn't bow to Trump and kiss the ring. He didn't fall for the old Trump charm offensive. Or the cajoling. And possibly threats.  "Something wrong" indeed.

A third government official briefed on the meeting defended the president, saying that Mr. Trump, whose discursive speaking style has hindered him in office, was using a negotiating tactic when he told Mr. Lavrov about the “pressure” he was under. The idea, the official suggested, was to create a sense of obligation with Russian officials and to coax concessions out of Mr. Lavrov — on Syria, Ukraine and other issues — by saying that Russian meddling in last year’s election had created enormous political problems for Mr. Trump.

I apologize if you were taking a drink when you read that. I know what it's like to have chocolate milk spray out of your nose. Very painful.

There are several investigations concurrently going. Who gets the documents first? And if it's the FBI, or the special prosecutor, do they have to share?

Speaking of that Oval Office meeting, watch this video clip. Foreign Minister Lavrov is an arrogant asshole.

Lavrov is a highly experienced diplomat who has served as Russian foreign minister since 2004. Before that, he was Russia's ambassador to the United Nations in New York from 1994 to 2004.

  CNN

Not very diplomatic for a diplomat. Maybe he was just having a bad day. He was having to meet with tRump, after all.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Narcissistic, Senile with ADD

He didn't get back to that tweet about the leaker(s), which is not to say he won't eventually.

Perhaps he assumes - and perhaps correctly - that the public is as easily distracted as he himself is.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Just Bizarre

Why is the National Security Adviser holding a press conference laying out Trump's upcoming trip? They're using the obviously unqualified NSA McMaster as a press secretary???

I'm guessing it's because they knew today's press would be more interested in the Post bombshell and figured McMaster would be believed over Sean Spicer.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Right on Cue

And totally clueless.

His concern is who leaked the information to the Post.

(Awaiting the next part of that Tweet. As often happens, there is a time lag between multiple parts of tRump tweets.)

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Who's Leaking?

That was my immediate reaction, too. However, it doesn't necessarily have to be someone who was in the room. Apparently, the notes on the meeting went out, and that's when the scramble began to do damage control. The leak may have come from someone at that point.

It was not clear whether Mr. Trump wittingly disclosed such highly classified information. He — and possibly other Americans in the room — may have not been aware of the sensitivity of what he was sharing. It was only after the meeting, when notes on the discussion were circulated among National Security Council officials, that it was flagged as too sensitive to be shared, even among many American officials, the former official said.

  NYT

Senior White House officials appeared to recognize quickly that Trump had overstepped and moved to contain the potential fallout.

Thomas Bossert, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, placed calls to the directors of the CIA and the NSA, services most directly involved in the intelligence-sharing arrangement with the partner.

One of Bossert's subordinates also called for the problematic portion of Trump's discussion to be stricken from internal memos and for the full transcript to be limited to a small circle of recipients, efforts to prevent sensitive details from being disseminated further or leaked.

  WaPo

The more sensitive details may have been prevented from leaking by this action, but the story of tRump's big mouth got out.  Any number of people in the White House may be rightfully freaking out about the man in the oval office and the risk to the U.S. by him being there.  The leaks aren't likely to stop, the firing of James Comey in an attempt to get someone in that position who will investigate and prosecute them notwithstanding.  Fortunately.

White House Employment Stress

Just last week, tRump went on record refuting the claims he made his staff offer for why he fired Comey. Now this:

Don't feel sorry for them. If they have no more self-respect or integrity than to go out there and lie for this pitiful excuse for a human being, they don't deserve sympathy.  THEY have good health insurance.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Here We Go...

...as predicted (which a baby could do at this point).

Perfectly reasonable.

Humanitarian reasons.

Does he still not understand what he's done?  Is he totally nuts, or is he just an asshole of the highest order and a completely incompetent president?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Here We Go...

...as predicted (which a baby could do at this point).

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

...To be continued.

The Aggrieved "Partner" - Who Is It?

A Middle Eastern ally that closely guards its own secrets provided the information, which was considered so sensitive that American officials did not share it widely within the United States government or pass it on to other allies.

[...]

[S]haring the information without the express permission of the ally who provided it was a major breach of espionage etiquette, and could jeopardize a crucial intelligence-sharing relationship.

In fact, the ally has repeatedly warned American officials that it would cut off access to such sensitive information if it were shared too widely, the former official said. In this case, the fear is that Russia will be able to determine exactly how the information was collected and could disrupt the ally’s espionage efforts.

  NYT

In this case, how can you deny that Trump has jeopardized American national security if our allied intelligence services stop sharing intel?

I wonder if this ally is Israel.

Consider Israeli media reports from shortly before the inauguration that “Israeli intelligence officials [were] concerned that the exposure of classified information to their American counterparts under a Trump administration could lead to their being leaked to Russia and onward to Iran.” At the time, Haaretz wrote, on the basis of reporting in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot:

The intelligence concerns, which have been discussed in closed forums recently, are based on suspicions of unreported ties between President-elect Donald Trump, or his associates, and the government of Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

As Russian intelligence is associated with intelligence officials in Tehran, highly classified information, such as Israel's clandestine methods of operation and intelligence sources, could potentially reach Iran. Such information has been shared with the United States in the past.

To the extent foreign partners were already concerned, this episode seems to confirm their worst fears.

  Lawfare Blog

Beyond angering a partner and calling into question the ability of the United States to keep secrets, the episode threatened to overshadow Mr. Trump’s first trip abroad as president. He departs Friday for Saudi Arabia, Israel, Italy and Belgium.

  NYT

Israel - if he doesn't take that stop out of his itenerary - may be where he gets his ass handed to him on a platter.

Among the details the president shared was the city in Syria where the ally picked up information about the plot, though Mr. Trump is not believed to have disclosed that the intelligence came from a Middle Eastern ally or precisely how it was gathered.

General McMaster did not address that in naming the city, in Islamic State-controlled territory, Mr. Trump gave Russia an important clue about the source of the information.

I'm a little lost on that count, unless there's only one US ally with an intelligence service in whatever city Trump revealed. But, probably Israel, eh? Turkey? Never mind, the Russians will know.

The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, sought more information, saying, “The president owes the intelligence community, the American people and Congress a full explanation.”

Doug Andres, a spokesman for Speaker Paul D. Ryan, said Mr. Ryan “hopes for a full explanation of the facts from the administration.”

Just wait for the tweets.* Or the Fox & Friends interview.

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, signaled to people outside the White House that he was not closely involved. But internally, Mr. Kushner lashed out at Mr. Spicer, who has been the target of most of his ire since the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, was fired last week.

Is it Spicer's job to mind the president's mouth? Why is this his fault? I think Spicer - the perfect fool - is the punching bag these days. I won't be surprised if he gets canned shortly.

“The White House has got to do something soon to bring itself under control and in order,” [Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee and the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee] told reporters, adding, “It’s got to happen.”

Good luck. The problem is at the top.

Lock him up! Lock him up!


...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

*UPDATE 5/16: Wasn't a long wait.

FURTHER UPDATE:

FURTHER UPDATE 5/16:  The New York Times is reporting that it was indeed Israel.

FURTHER FURTHER UPDATE 5/16: The Lawfare blog quote above is misleading. After reading further, and then reading the actual Haaretz article, it looks more like it wasn't the Israelis who had concerns, at least not until some American intel folks told them they should be.

What to think?

Stupid, Arrogant, and Uncontrollable

Communications staff and senior staffers at the White House were literally “hiding in offices,” according to a senior Trump aide, as a gaggle of White House press stormed White House hallways just after the Washington Post story broke on Monday evening.

“Do not ask me about how this looks, we all know how this looks,” the senior aide told The Daily Beast on Monday evening. Trump administration officials spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity so as to speak freely. The aide described a scene at the White House as tense and “a morgue,” where senior officials such as Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Stephen Bannon convened to sketch an immediate path forward in handling the aftermath.

[...]

But administration officials see the optics of the situation as catastrophic to an administration struggling to deal with a torrent of news about the FBI’s investigation, Comey’s firing, and increasingly loud calls for an independent probe into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russian officials.

“At this point I’m wondering if we’ll ever be able to stop talking about Russia,” a White House staffer said shortly after the Post story was published. “It’s totally self-inflicted. Every time I feel like we’re getting a handle on the last Russia fiasco, a new one pops.”

[...]

“With news like this I’m beginning to wonder why Trump ran in the first place and if he really cares about the country,” said a senior Trump appointee involved in counter-ISIS policymaking. “I miss candidate Trump. Now he’s just a pathetic mess.”

“I doubt he did it to collude [with the Russians]. I think he’s dumb and doesn’t know the difference,” a former FBI official who worked aspects of the Russia investigation told The Daily Beast. “He thinks he’s arranging some business deal except that he’s not.”

When asked if they could use info in way that harms the U.S., this official said, “of course.”

The Russians, the source added, “like [Trump’s] mental instability and stupidity. They don’t like his unpredictability.”

[...]

[One] official, who is familiar with Trump’s thinking on these matters, said it will exacerbate “his animus and suspicion towards ‘Deep State’” and Obama-holdover actors, who Trump and some of his closest advisors have suspected of trying to damage his presidency through anonymous leaks to the press.

  Daily Beast

No doubt. I hope he blows a gasket.