- As president, Biden now has access to all notes of Trump’s ties to Putin.
- A former Trump official told the Politician that Biden “owns” the notes.
- The Biden White House did not say whether it had already reviewed these memos.
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During Donald Trump’s four years as president, he was extremely cautious about his phone calls to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which numbered at least a dozen. According to several reports, he kept notes of these calls on a top-secret computer system and was slow to tell the American public about the conversations.
But he will no longer be able to hide what has been said, now that President Joe Biden is in the White House.
The Politician reported on Tuesday that as soon as a new president is sworn in, they have access to the full conversation memos – or “memcons” – written during previous presidencies, which are detailed notes taken during calls with world leaders.
A former Trump White House official told Politico that Biden’s national security team will not “need our approval to see those [records]. “
President Joe Biden in the Oval Office on February 9, 2021.
Pete Marovich-Pool / Getty Images
“Biden has all the calling materials. There is only one president at a time,” said the former Trump official.
A former Trump White House official told the Politician that the records were not erased before Trump stepped down, but transferred – as usual – to the National Archives and Records Administration.
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The Biden White House did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. Nor did he comment to Politico whether he had seen the content of Trump’s connections with Putin.
But a former national security officer, described as close to Biden, told Politico: “It is a national security priority to find out what Trump said to Putin.”
“Some things, like what happened at some face-to-face meetings where no American translator or note taker was present, may never be fully known. But I would be very surprised if the new national security team was not trying to access,” they said. source to Politico.
But a former Trump White House official disagreed with this logic, telling the Politician: “There are certain things that a president and his immediate team should be privileged to do the government’s work, without being subject to constant party games. “
Unusually for an American president, Trump had a markedly warm relationship with Putin, often praising the Russian president’s leadership style.
The Trump-Putin relationship has helped to question whether Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections may have included collusion between Russia and the Trump team.
An investigation by a special lawyer on the matter, conducted by Robert Mueller, acted as a specter for much of Trump’s time in office, but Mueller said there was insufficient evidence to accuse someone in the Trump campaign of illegally conspiring or coordinating with the Russian government.
Meanwhile, Biden’s first call to Putin marked a change in the tone of the White House. During the call, Biden put pressure on Putin over interference in the Russian elections, the SolarWinds hack and the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.