White
House restricted access to Trump's calls with Putin and Saudi crown prince
White
House efforts to limit access to President Donald Trump's conversations with
foreign leaders extended to phone calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, according to people familiar with the
matter.
Those
calls -- both with leaders who maintain controversial relationships with Trump
-- were among the presidential conversations that aides took remarkable steps
to keep from becoming public.
In
the case of Trump's call with Prince Mohammed, officials who ordinarily would
have been given access to a rough transcript of the conversation never saw one,
according to one of the sources. Instead, a transcript was never circulated at
all, which the source said was highly unusual, particularly after a high-profile
conversation.
The
call - which the person said contained no especially
sensitive national security secrets
-- came as the White House was confronting the murder of journalist Jamal
Khashoggi, which US intelligence assessments said came at the hand of the Saudi
government.
With
Putin, access to the transcript of at least one of Trump's conversations was
also tightly restricted, according to a former Trump administration official.
It's
not clear if aides took the additional step of placing Saudi Arabia and Russia
phone calls in the same highly secured electronic system that held a
now-infamous phone call with Ukraine's president and which helped spark a
whistleblower complaint made public this week, though officials confirmed calls
aside from the Ukraine conversation were placed there.
But
the attempts to conceal information about Trump's discussions with Prince
Mohammed and Putin further illustrate the extraordinary efforts taken by
Trump's aides to strictly limit the number of people with access to his
conversations with foreign leaders.
The
White House did not comment about the limiting of access to calls with the
Russian and Saudi leaders.
Officials
said the practice began more than a year ago after embarrassing leaks revealed
information about Trump's phone conversations with the leaders of Australia and
Mexico. While it includes the highly secure system for particularly sensitive
matters, it has also extended to limiting the number of individuals who are
provided a transcript or are able to listen to the call.
Those
efforts have come under scrutiny after the intelligence whistleblower alleged
that White House officials took unusual steps to conceal Trump's phone call
with Ukraine's new president.
The
complaint alleged the handling of the Ukraine call was "not the first
time" that such steps had been taken "solely for the purpose of
protecting political sensitive — rather than national security-sensitive —
information."
Administration
officials say, John Eisenberg, the White House deputy counsel for national security
affairs and a national security legal adviser directed Ukraine transcript call
be moved to the separate highly classified system, as detailed in the
whistleblower complaint.
That
system is normally reserved for "code word" documents that are extremely
sensitive, such as covert operations.
Eisenberg
also played a role in the early Justice Department handling of the
whistleblower complain. Eisenberg was on an August 14 call with the general the
counsel of the intelligence agency where the complainant worked, and John
Demers, the assistant attorney general for the Justice national security
division, a US official briefed on the matter.
During
that call, the general counsel informed Eisenberg and Demers that there were
concerns being raised about one of Trump's phone calls with a foreign leader.
Eisenberg invited Demers and the intelligence agency's general counsel to
review the transcript of the call, and Demers traveled to the White House the
following day to review it. The general counsel of the intelligence agency
declined to review the call, according to the official.
The
White House acknowledged earlier Friday that administration officials directed
the Ukraine call transcript be filed in a highly classified system, confirming
allegations contained in the whistleblower complaint.
In
a statement provided to CNN, a senior White House official said the move to a
place the transcript in the system came at the direction of National Security
Council attorneys.
"NSC
lawyers directed that the classified document be handled appropriately,"
the senior White House official said.
But
the statement did not explain whether anyone else in the White House was part
of the decision to put the Ukraine transcript in the more restrictive system.
Nor did it delve into an accusation in the complaint that other phone call
transcripts were handled in a similar fashion.
Like
the call with Saudi's crown prince, the Ukraine transcript did not contain
highly classified information to require such a move, raising questions about
why the order was made.
The
White House has not explained why it selectively put certain head of state
calls into the codeword system, even when the content wasn't highly classified,
such as the Ukraine call.
Officials
from the past two administrations said it was
unusual to transfer a transcript
that doesn't contain sensitive information into the code word computer system.
"In
my experience you would never move a transcript to the code word system if it
does not have any code word terms. If the president is classifying and
declassifying the stuff he doesn't want to get out, that is an abuse of power
and abuse of the system," said Sam Vinograd, a CNN national security
analyst who served on President Barack Obama's National Security Council and at
the Treasury Department under President George W. Bush.
Three
other former National Security Council officials said they were unaware of
calls that did not contain highly sensitive national security materials being
moved into another location.
While
the practice of limiting access to foreign leader calls began in earnest last
year after the leaks of Mexico and Australian calls, it's not clear precisely
when the initial steps were taken begin that effort.
The
White House was also embarrassed when it was reported Trump had congratulated
Putin on a phone call shortly after a Russian election widely seen as
illegitimate. White House staff had written a memo specifically recommending
Trump "do not congratulate" Putin in the call.
John
Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser who departed from his post
earlier this month, was known for keeping a tight hold on all information
generally speaking, according to sources who worked with him at the NSC. He did
not reply when asked for a request for comment through his spokesperson.
A
former administration official said that despite the code word protection, you
didn't necessarily need a special clearance to view the records and there was a
process for officials to access the calls they wanted.
Trump's
relationships with both Prince Mohammed and Putin have come under scrutiny over
the past several years. Both are strongmen with dismal human rights records.
After
Khashoggi was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2018,
Trump vowed to get to the bottom of the matter. But he has repeatedly said he's
unwilling to break off US-Saudi ties -- including military and trade — as a
result.
With
Putin, Trump has regularly worked arduously to guard his conversations,
including asking for notes taken by his interpreter after their first encounter
in 2017. He remains sensitive to accusations he's too cozy with the Russian
leader
who
oversaw an election interference effort to get him elected.
