Revelations from the forthcoming (and as yet closely held) book by Watergate reporting star Bob Woodward include a report that Donald Trump, during his post-presidency at Mar-a-Lago, had telephone contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin perhaps as many as seven times.
Trump denied the allegations in the book (War) broadly, denigrating Woodward’s reportorial reputation with his camp calling the reporting “lies” — without great specificity about what he believes Woodward got wrong.
The situation, plausible if unproven, has added a fresh layer of danger to the accusations brought by the Department of Justice against Trump for secreting away highly sensitive classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
That case, known generally as the “classified documents case” was dismissed by Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled that Special Counsel Jack Smith was illegitimately appointed to prosecute Trump.
Smith and the DOJ are appealing Cannon’s ruling. Meanwhile the idea of Trump on the phone directly with Putin, as the Russian leader led a war against Ukraine –an American ally — has stoked anger and raised red alerts about what would be clearly a highly combustible combination of Putin’s having, through a cooperative Trump, access to American military secrets that Trump illicitly took from the Oval Office and refused to return, according the the DOJ indictment.
So, let me get this straight, Donald Trump was sitting in Mar-a-Lago on a trove of stolen U.S. national secrets and while there, had Vladimir Putin on speed dial for regular private chats? After he tried to overthrow our government? And Putin is helping his campaign now? And…
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) October 8, 2024
Left-leaning pundit David Rothkopf encapsulated the rage and sense of impotence that Trump’s alleged flouting of justice invokes, writing: “Trump was sitting in Mar-a-Lago on a trove of stolen U.S. national secrets and while there, had Vladimir Putin on speed dial for regular private chats? After he tried to overthrow our government? And Putin is helping his campaign now?”
Kamala Harris addressed Trump’s relationship with Putin in the debate, and then again today during an interview with Howard Stern.
Stern: A new report just came out today that Trump was sending COVID tests to Putin and Putin said, ‘don’t let anyone know.’ What do you make of that?
Vice President Harris: Trump gets played by dictators. They are manipulating him with flattery and favor. Remember, people were… pic.twitter.com/34lVk8mm47
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 8, 2024
[The New York Times was unable to confirm the Woodward-reported Putin-Trump calls, which neither party would have wanted made public. The Times reported: “Efforts to confirm any post-White House communication between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin on Tuesday were not successful,” despite having talked to 19 current and former Trump and Biden administration officials and “career intelligence officers.”]
There could be, former National Security official Alexander Vindman suggests, recordings of the alleged calls in possession of American intelligence. Vindman stresses that these would be captured as a result of Putin being a “high-level target” and not due to any spying on Trump.
Trump’s @realDonaldTrump 7 meetings with Putin…
It is reasonable there is a recording of these calls in an exquisite intel program. Trump would not be the target of the collection, but because Putin is a high-value target, Trump would be caught in the collection. The Russians… pic.twitter.com/7SkTEAbZqM
— Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) October 8, 2024