President Trump undercut claims that he has been tougher on Russia than his predecessor after leaked details from a Tuesday call to Vladimir Putin showed him ignoring alleged requests from national security advisers to confront the Russian leader over election meddling and a nerve-agent attack earlier this month.
White House officials were blindsided after details from Trump’s call with Putin appeared in the pages of The Washington Post, including that the president was specifically instructed not to congratulate his Russian counterpart for winning reelection earlier this week. Trump disregarded additional instructions to condemn the poisoning of an ex-spy in London — something his administration had already found Russia responsible for — and the country’s interference in U.S. elections, according to the report.
Sources close to the White House suggested the leak likely originated from one of two culprits: a National Security Council holdover from the Obama administration, or an aide who felt compelled to retaliate after the president ignored briefing materials he had received ahead of the call.
“It’s obvious who would be behind it. It would be individuals who seek to undermine the president of the United States. Likely career officials from the Obama era or people who politically disagree with the president’s policy toward Russia,” said former White House national security aide Sebastian Gorka.
The leak was especially shocking given the extended dry spell of similar disclosures to members of the press since chief of staff John Kelly took the reins last summer. At the beginning of his tenure, Kelly convened an all-hands meeting in the auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to inform executive branch staff of the “punishments for government officials leaking classified information,” according to a person who was present for the meeting.
“Given how much smaller the distribution lists have become since [Kelly] came on board, I think there’s a very high level of probability he’ll determine who was behind this,” the person said, adding that the “level of leakage was drastically cut” once Kelly was named chief of staff.
Though leaks have occurred in the months since Kelly arrived in the West Wing, few have come at a worse time for the president.
White House officials have spent weeks pushing back on reports and claims from senior intelligence officials that Trump has done little to nothing to punish Russia for its meddling in the 2016 election since taking office. Press secretary Sarah Sanders fiercely defended the president last month after U.S. Cyber Command chief Adm. Mike Rogers told Congress he had yet to receive permission from Trump to take action against Russian cyber-operations. Rogers later added that Putin likely feels as though he’s paid “little price” for his interference in the presidential race and is thus expected to continue the nefarious attacks.
“I can tell you that we are taking a number of steps to prevent this and we are looking at a variety of other ways that we’re going to continue to implement over the coming weeks and months,” Sanders told reporters, adding that “nobody is denying [Rogers] the authority” to take certain actions against Moscow.
Two weeks later, the Trump administration took a series of actions that seemed to support Sanders’ claim. Treasury officials unveiled sanctions on March 15 that targeted nearly 25 Russian individuals who used social media to influence voters in 2016 and hit billionaire oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close friend of Putin who has lent financial support to hackers in Moscow.
The sanctions came hours after the U.S. issued a joint statement with France, Germany and the United Kingdom accusing Russia of using a military-grade nerve agent in the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter.
Some Republican lawmakers who had urged Trump to sanction Russia over its malicious cyber-activity, and later expressed pleasure when he did so this month, were quick to condemn the president on Tuesday for disrupting his tough stance toward Putin with a congratulatory phone call similar to one Barack Obama made after the Russia’s 2012 presidential election.
“An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country’s future…,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he “wouldn’t have a conversation with a criminal.”
Sanders told reporters on Tuesday that Trump’s congratulatory call in no way undermined U.S. pressure on Russia, claiming he would “continued to be tough” on Putin despite simultaneously working with him on “some areas of shared interests.”
A former senior administration official later echoed that sentiment when asked if the phone call damaged the administration’s effort to appear tough on Russia.
“The more that we can do to make it clear to Russia that we’re going to maintain a relationship but not overlook their actions, whether it’s their meddling in our elections or them taking the lives of innocent individuals, the better,” the official told the Washington Examiner. “You don’t have to choose between having an open dialogue with them and being able to call out their bad actions.”
Gorka said the president’s policies over the last 16 months have been demonstrative of his broader goal of holding Putin accountable, while working to repair U.S. relations with Moscow. He pointed to Trump’s approval of energy exploration and oil drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, and his decision last December to approve a massive sale of lethal weapons to Ukraine, supplying arms to those fighting Russian-backed separatists.
“An administration is judged on policy and what it does, and President Trump in the last 14 months – every policy decision that has impacted Russia has been bad for Russia,” Gorka said. ‘This is a president who is arming the Ukrainian government. That is his attitude toward Russia, not what he may or may not have said on a phone call.”
Trump himself has defended his call with Putin, noting it was customary of past presidents to phone the Russia leader following his reelection, and claiming the U.S. could benefit from Russia’s help as it works to denuclearize North Korea, among other international crises.
“The Fake News Media is crazed because they wanted me to excoriate [Putin],” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “They are wrong! Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing.”
“Bush tried to get along, but didn’t have the ‘smarts.’ Obama and Clinton tried, but didn’t have the energy or chemistry,” he added.
Trump said earlier this week that he and Putin are likely to get together “in the not-too-distant future” to discuss the shared issues. However, White House officials have declined to provide an estimated timeline of when a bilateral meeting could take place.
