The House Oversight Committee is keeping the spotlight on its request for information about President Donald Trump’s meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of another scheduled meeting between the two world leaders at the G20 Summit in Japan.
In a new letter, House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings writes to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney that he wants to know “why the White House has failed to answer the questions raised in a letter I sent more than three months ago seeking information about troubling reports that President Donald Trump may have violated the Presidential Records Act by confiscating and destroying documents to keep secret the details of his meetings” with Putin.
Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, set a new deadline for the White House to comply with his request by July 8. He also asks for a transcribed interview with the director of the White House Office of Records Management or another official who has direct knowledge of how the administration complies with the Presidential Records Act.
The committee has requested to know if Trump destroyed the interpreter’s notes from his meeting with Putin in Hamburg, Germany, in 2017 as well as if Trump took steps to preserve the notes. The committee also asks which officials “within the Trump administration including within the White House were provided summaries or readouts of President Trump’s meetings or calls” with Putin including the meetings in Hamburg and Helsinki.
The Washington Post reportedin January that Trump took possession of his interpreter’s notes after a meeting with Putin in Hamburg in July 2017.
