Trump denies hiding details of Putin talks

Washington, January 13 

US President Donald Trump has denied reports that he did not share details of some his meetings with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, saying that he would not mind releasing those details.

"Well, I would (release details of the conversations with Putin)… I am not keeping anything under wraps," Trump told Fox news in an interview following a report by The Washington Post that claimed he has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Russian Prsident Putin from senior officials in administration.

"I don't care. I mean I had a conversation like every President does, you sit with the President of various countries. We had a great conversation. We were talking about Israel and securing Israel and lots of other things and it was a great conversation. I'm not keeping anything under wraps. I couldn't care less," he said. "Why not release the conversation that you had with President Putin in Helsinki along with some other stuff?" he was asked by Fox News following the damaging report by The Washington Post. Trump described the news report as "ridiculous".

“The Washington Post is almost as bad as probably as bad as The New York Times. I have a one-on-one meeting with Putin like I do with every other leader and I had many one-on-ones. Nobody ever says anything about it,” he said. “I meet with every leader…individually. I meet with (PM  Narendra) Modi. I meet with (Shinzo) Abe (of Japan), I meet with them. Nobody says anything. But, I meet with Putin, they make a big deal. Anybody could have listened to that meeting. That meeting is open for grabs,” Trump said. — PTI

Democrats set to look into FBI probe

• A House of Representatives panel will look into a newspaper report that the FBI investigated whether President rump has been working on behalf of Russia, against US interests, the panel’s Democratic chairman said.
• The NY Times reported that the probe began in the days after Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in 2017 and said the agency’s counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether Trump's actions constituted a possible threat to national security. Trump rejected the Times piece.