After pictures of a smiling Trump, Kislyak, and Lavrov hit the internet, a White House official said, "they tricked us".
Brennan reported that Mr. Trump said Tuesday's firing of FBI Director James Comey had no influence on the meeting and the fact the president made the invitation despite the controversy shows how deeply he wants to improve frayed relations with Russian Federation.
President Donald Trump met with Russian officials at the White House and while Russian state media was present, the American press was kept out.
This has led the NPPA among many others to accuse the White House of enabling Russian propaganda after the Russian Foreign Ministry released the only photos of the meeting to USA news agencies and the public.
The White House did not post photos of the meeting until Thursday.
Remember, this is the same president who looked the other way and carefully clasped his hands near his lap in March when it was time for a handshake photo op with American ally and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Oval Office.
At issue is not just the fact that White House officials were so easily misled by the Russian envoy. You can find more photos on the Russian Foreign Ministry's official Flickr account.
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It was only after the Russian Embassy in Washington tweeted the TASS photos of Trump and Lavrov that most journalists and others became aware it had taken place at all. And not only did he have that meeting in the Oval Office, but he allowed a Russian photographer in to document that meeting. Why?
Officials said that Vladimir Putin had requested the meeting, a quid-pro-quo for his recent face-to-face with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Moscow.
Furthermore, the Washington Post's reporting cites "former intelligence officials" who regarded the access granted to Russian photographers as a potential security risk, particularly because of the prospect the Russians could have used a "sophisticated" listening device. "We had an official photographer in the room, as did they", spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday.
Responding to a Twitter question as to whether or not it was a "sound" decision to allow the Russian photographer into the Oval Office, former Deputy CIA Director David S. Cohen answered, "No, it was not".
CNN's Jim Acosta reported the White House was "furious."
"I couldn't let foreign delegations bring phones/cameras into my EEOB office, yet Trump let Russian gov photographer+equipment into the Oval", Kahl tweeted. Trump was so concerned about optics that, in his letter firing Comey, he went to pains to assert without substantiation that the FBI director had told him on three occasions that he personally was not under investigation.
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