Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

Who cares about 'back channel'?

Publicly stated 'Russia, if you're listening', 'I don't know why they would (interfere)', taking possession of an interpreter's notes of a meeting between Trump and Putin and never a single critical word from Trump about Putin are all that a reasonable person needs to conclude that Putin had Trump's pecker in his pocket.

Only a treason weasel, a complete f'ing moron, would conclude otherwise.

Trump has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in administration

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-has-concealed-details-of-his-face-to-face-encounters-with-putin-from-senior-officials-in-administration/2019/01/12/65f6686c-1434-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html

President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

Trump did so after a meeting with Putin in 2017 in Hamburg that was also attended by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. U.S. officials learned of Trump’s actions when a White House adviser and a senior State Department official sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout shared by Tillerson.

The constraints that Trump imposed are part of a broader pattern by the president of shielding his communications with Putin from public scrutiny and preventing even high-ranking officials in his own administration from fully knowing what he has told one of the United States’ main adversaries.