Trump meetings with Putin broke the law, groups allege

A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that President Trump violated the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act by “intentionally failing” to keep written accounts of meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and others.

The lawsuit, filed by the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility in Ethics in Washington, the National Security Archive and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, mentions five specific meetings between Trump and Putin at which no note takers were allowed to document what the two leaders discussed.

“It is clear that President Trump and White House officials have gone to great lengths to hold high-level meetings with foreign governments and carry out foreign policy objectives while blatantly ignoring record-keeping laws and preventing national security officials and the American people from understanding what they are doing,” Noah Bookbinder, CREW’s executive director, said in a press release. “The absence of records in these circumstances causes real, incalculable harm to our national security and poses a direct threat to transparency for the American public. We’re asking the court to compel White House officials to make and maintain these important records that let the public know what the government is up to and provide a safeguard to our history.” Read more

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