Stories by Zachary Basu

White House rejects request for documents on Trump-Putin meetings

Putin and Trump — Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Photo: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Image

White House counsel Pat Cipollone sent a letter to top House Democrats on Thursday rejecting their request for documents related to President Trump's conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Politico reports.

Details: Addressing the chairs of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees, Cipollone argued: “The committees’ letters cite no legal authority for the proposition that another branch of the government can force the president to disclose diplomatic communications with foreign leaders or that supports forcing disclosure of the confidential internal deliberations of the president’s national security advisors."

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Cipollone continued:

"With all respect, the Constitution assigns the President the role of charting the course of U.S. foreign policy and determining which diplomatic communications advance the national interest. Policy disagreements with the President's decisions on those matters do not create a legislative right to review the President's diplomatic communications with foreign leaders."

Why it matters: The Washington Post reported earlier this year that Trump has repeatedly sought to conceal the details of his face-to-face conversations with Putin from senior officials in his own administration, even going as far as to confiscate notes from his own interpreter. In the context of the investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to the Russian government, Democrats have said they find this behavior alarming.

The big picture: The White House has now rejected oversight requests from congressional Democrats at least three times. Cipollone sent a similar letter earlier this month refusing to turn over documents related to White House security clearances.

Vladimir Putin

Zachary BasuMar 21

Felix Sater to face House hearing on Trump Tower Moscow project

Russian-born real estate developer Felix Sater will publicly testify before the House Intelligence Committee on March 27 after previously delaying his appearance due to scheduling issues.

Why it matters: Sater is expected to discuss his work with Michael Cohen on building a Trump Tower in Moscow — a project that helped land Cohen a 3-year prison sentence after he lied to Congress about how long negotiations extended into the 2016 presidential campaign.

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The backdrop: Sater, a convicted felon who pleaded guilty in 1998 for his involvement in a Mafia-linked fraud scheme, promised Cohen in 2015 that the Moscow project would be completed with the aid of Russian President Vladimir Putin and that the deal would help Trump win the 2016 election.

In a 2013 sworn deposition, Trump testified that he barely knew Sater and that he wouldn't recognize him if he was sitting in the same room. But Sater has previously testified that he knows Trump personally and that he visited his office throughout the 2000s to discuss possible business deals.

"Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process."

— Sater, in an email to Cohen

The big picture: Sater's public hearing next week comes exactly one month after Cohen's explosive testimony to the House Oversight Committee. House Intel also plans to hold a public hearing on March 28, titled "Putin's Playbook: The Kremlin's Use of Oligarchs, Money and Intelligence in 2016 and Beyond."

Go deeper: Timeline: Here's what we know about Trump Tower Moscow

Felix Sater

Zachary BasuMar 20

Donald Tusk: Short Brexit extension only if Parliament backs May's deal

European Council President Donald Tusk said at a hastily arranged press statement on Wednesday that a Brexit extension until the end of June, requested by U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May earlier in the day, would only be possible if Parliament backs May's proposed deal.

Why it matters: Tusk's position — at least right now — effectively forces the U.K. to choose between May's deal and no deal as Brexit Day looms in 9 days. The House of Commons has twice rejected May's deal by significant margins, and Speaker John Bercow ruled this week that the chamber cannot vote on "the same proposition or substantially the same proposition" a third time.

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