WASHINGTON – The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said he is considering issuing a subpoena for the notes taken by President Donald Trump's interpreter during his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"What we're not going to do is sit back and do nothing." Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., told CNN Monday.

Engel said he was working with Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee to decide how to respond to new revelations in The Washington Post that Trump has tried to shield key details of his discussions with Putin. Citing unnamed sources, the Post reported that after a 2017 meeting with Putin, Trump took his interpreter's notes and told the interpreter not to disclose the substance of his conversation to other administration officials.

“It’s disturbing,” Engel said of the report. “And we want to get to the bottom of it … There’s something there that isn’t right.”

Some experts have warned that forcing an interpreter to publicly disclose the details of a confidential conversation between world leaders would be unprecedented and perilous.

"We're going to not do this cavalierly," Engel said. The Democratic chairman said he would prefer not to subpoena the notes but added: "We may have no choice."

A spokesman for Rep. Adam Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, declined to comment Monday. But another Democrat on the committee, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, said he and Schiff would work with Engel to get the interpreter's notes.

"There’s an urgency here,” Swalwell said. “There’s no other way to find out what was agreed upon between these two individuals."

Asked about the Post story on Monday, Trump dismissed it as "a lot of fake news" and said his meeting with Putin was "very successful."

"... It was a very, very successful meeting," the president told reporters as he departed the White House for an event in Louisiana.

"We talked about Israel, we talked about the pipeline that Germany is paying Russia a lot of money," Trump said, according to the White House pool report. " ... We talked about that. We talked about many subjects, but I have those meetings one-on-one with all leaders including the president of China, including prime minister of Japan, Abe. We have those meetings all the time. No big deal."

Democrats have long sought details of Trump's private meetings with Putin, particularly after the two world leaders met last year in Helsinki. At a joint news conference following their two-hour, closed-door session, Trump made a series of conciliatory statements toward Putin. Among other things, Trump said he believed Putin's denial that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 election, despite the conclusions of U.S. intelligence officials that the Kremlin did try to sway the election.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russia's role in the 2016 election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign.

Read more:

President Trump went to 'extraordinary lengths' to hide details of Putin meetings, report says

Trump's interpreter: Should she be compelled to tell what she heard during private meeting with Putin?

'I know Putin': How a drumbeat of 2018 revelations shadows Trump's presidency

Contributing: Eliza Collins