Lavrov-Trump Talks Not Audio Recorded, Only Transcripted - Putin's Aide

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The information was supplied by Israel under the condition that it not be shared with others.

After Trump's meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency.

Virtually every agency comprised within the US intelligence community supports the claim that Russian Federation performed a massive series of cyber attacks against last year's general election, hacking email servers for the Democratic Party and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaign. Currently, one European country is hesitant to share information with the US for fear that the president will share it with the Russians.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer got off to a rocky start with beat reporters on the second day of the administration when he delivered a tirade about reporting on the Inauguration Day crowds.

Mr Trump met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak at the White House last Wednesday.

The Washington Post broke the news Monday that Trump provided Russia's foreign minister and ambassador with highly classified information about potential terror threats from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

"We need to decide if members of Congress, and the country as a whole, believe that the President's conduct was corrupt enough - if indeed that is what we find - that his removal is not just the nullification of the election by other means".

President Trump's National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster has been made the face of one of the trio of scandals the White House is now reeling from. Putin still hopes to meet his American counterpart on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in Germany in early July.

"It was necessary to issue him a reprimand, a rebuke", Putin said of Lavrov, "because he didn't share these secrets".

Comey reportedly maintained a paper trail to detail what he saw as the president's improper attempt to influence the investigation.

The intensifying drama comes as Trump is set to embark Friday on his first foreign trip, which had been optimistically viewed by some aides as an opportunity to reset an administration floundering under an inexperienced president.

The foreign minister smiled back, chuckling at the brief exchange the same way he did when he stood next to his American counterpart, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as he was asked about Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey just days after the head of the federal agency reportedly requested additional resources for the Russian Federation investigation.

GOP lawmaker raises option of impeaching Trump over Comey
Therefore, says the Justice Department, "it follows that an endeavor to obstruct justice need not be successful to be criminal". Yates was sacked soon after because the White House said she refused to defend the president's travel ban in court.

He reportedly shared this memo with top Federal Bureau of Investigation associates. "In the meantime, I will never stop fighting for the people and the issues that matter most to the future of our country". Yet he suggested that the president didn't know what he was doing because Trump hadn't been briefed enough about the source of the intelligence to understand the sensitivity behind it.

The news of the Russian meeting also came a day after Mr Trump dismissed Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey from his post.

But Mr Trump said in an interview last week that "this Russian thing" was on his mind as he made the decision.

The White House denied the allegation that Mr Trump had tried to influence Mr Comey.

From Moscow, Lucian reports that Putin also said that it's up to the American people, not Russian Federation, to assess Trump's performance.

ABC News' Justin Fishel contributed reporting from Washington.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks after the Belt and Road Forum at the China National Convention Center in China on May 15, 2017.

Two Republicans had also backed the move, they said.

The Senate intelligence committee on Wednesday asked Comey to appear before the panel in both open and closed sessions.

The key legal statute is 18 US Code Section 1512, which contains a broad definition allowing charges to be brought against someone who "obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so".

Legal experts have told the Washington Post that that is not clear in this case as intent is hard to prove.

"#Putin offered to share Trump-Lavrov transcript but how about the real transcripts the collusion ones that put Russian Federation in WH to begin with".

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