Sensitive details about Trump-Putin summit revealed in discarded government documents, NPR reports
U.S. State Department documents left behind in an Alaska hotel reveal details of the Aug. 15 summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, NPR reported on Aug. 15.
Eight pages of government documents were left in a public printer at a business center in an Alaska hotel, according to photos of the papers a hotel guest shared with NPR.
The documents disclose the exact locations and meeting times of the summit and phone numbers of U.S. government staff. They also reveal other sensitive details, such as a menu for a luncheon in honor of "His Excellency Vladimir Putin."
One page of the documents notes that Trump planned to gift Putin with a desk statue of an American bald eagle.
Another section provides phonetic pronunciation guides for the members of the Russian delegation, including "Mr. President POO-tihn."
The documents detail the planned seating chart for the Aug. 15 luncheon, though the event was apparently canceled.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly dismissed the suggestion that leaving the documents in a hotel printer represented a security lapse, referring to the papers as a "multi-page lunch menu."
The documents further illustrate the royal welcome Putin received on American soil. The warm and friendly tenor of the meeting was apparent from the leaders' first greetings on the red carpet in Alaska. Trump praised the encounter after the summit, calling the meeting "a 10" and hailing his "great relationship" with Putin.
In a briefing with top Kremlin officials on Aug. 16, Putin called the summit "very frank and substantive."
Putin and Trump spoke in a closed-door meeting for nearly three hours, after which they announced in a joint press conference that no peace agreement had been reached. Trump then abandoned his demands for a ceasefire —a precondition for negotiations backed by Ukraine and Europe — and said he favors making a rapid peace deal with Moscow.
