WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A\u00a0new book\u2019s assertion\u00a0that former President Donald Trump may have had as many as seven private phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving the White House has refocused attention on their politically fraught relationship and on Trump\u2019s sustained dialogue with world leaders as he seeks a return to power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not surprising in and of itself that an ex-president would preserve ties with foreign counterparts. But the detail in journalist Bob Woodward\u2019s book \u201cWar\u201d raised eyebrows in light of a\u00a0special counsel investigation during Trump\u2019s presidency\u00a0that examined potential ties between Russia and the Republican\u2019s 2016 campaign as well as\u00a0Trump\u2019s more recent criticism of U.S. aid to Ukraine\u00a0as it fends off Russia\u2019s invasion \u2014 statements that have hinted at a possible U.S. policy overhaul if he\u2019s elected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would caution any world leader about trusting Vladimir Putin with anything,\u201d said Emily Harding, who led the Senate Intelligence Committee\u2019s investigation into 2016 Russian election interference and is now a national security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Trump campaign and the Kremlin,\u00a0which U.S. officials have said is working to influence the 2024 election\u00a0in favor of Trump, denied the reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked at a press briefing Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration would have \u201cserious concerns\u201d if the reported calls were true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not aware of those calls. I certainly can\u2019t confirm any of those calls from here,\u201d she said. \u201cBut, if it is indeed true, are we (concerned)? Do we have serious concerns? Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s no secret that Trump has held multiple meetings over the last year with major world leaders:\u00a0hosting Hungary\u2019s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, and\u00a0Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sitting down in New York last April with\u00a0Polish President Andrzej Duda\u00a0and\u00a0meeting Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u00a0during the Ukrainian president\u2019s trip to the U.S. last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meetings offer Trump an opportunity to differentiate his foreign policy approach from that of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and to shore up connections if he reclaims the White House. During Netanyahu\u2019s visit in July, Trump boasted of a \u201cgreat relationship,\u201d drawing a tacit contrast with the\u00a0more strained dynamic between the Israeli leader and Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While those meetings were known publicly, Woodward\u2019s book cites an unnamed aide as saying Trump and Putin had as many as seven private calls. That adds to long-running questions about their relationship and what Trump may be trying to achieve, said Robert Orttung, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As president, \u201cWe never really understood why he liked Putin so much and why he was trying to develop such a close relationship with someone who is clearly an adversary and against everything the United States stands for,\u201d Orttung said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some claims about ties between Trump and allies and Russia have proved overheated or fizzled over time, but the subject continues to draw considerable public scrutiny, including after Trump left office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FBI and special counsel\u00a0Robert Mueller spent several years investigating\u00a0whether Russia had colluded with the 2016 Trump campaign to tip the outcome of the election. Though investigators did not establish a criminal conspiracy, they did find the Trump campaign actively welcomed Russia\u2019s help during the election and that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2018, after meeting Putin in Helsinki,\u00a0Trump memorably and publicly questioned his own intelligence agencies\u00a0\u2019 conclusion that Russia meddled in the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,\u201d Trump said at the time. He added: \u201cHe just said it\u2019s not Russia. I will say this: I don\u2019t see any reason why it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More recently, Trump called Putin \u201cpretty smart\u201d for invading Ukraine and has praised Russia\u2019s military record in historical conflicts, saying last month: \u201cAs somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon. That\u2019s what they do. They fight. And it\u2019s not pleasant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The book, which also says Trump secretly sent Putin COVID-19 test machines during the height of the pandemic, does not describe the content of their conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung denied they occurred, calling the book by the famed Watergate journalist the \u201cwork of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.\u201d Trump complained at a campaign event on Wednesday that \u201cI had to go through years of Russia, Russia, Russia, and they knew it was fake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Kremlin spokesman also denied the calls happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The book\u2019s details revived discussion about the Logan Act, a 1799 statute that bars private American citizens from trying to intervene in \u201cdisputes or controversies\u201d between the United States and foreign powers without government approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The statute has produced just two criminal cases, none since the 1850s and neither resulting in a criminal conviction. Former presidents from Richard Nixon to Jimmy Carter to Bill Clinton have held talks with international figures after leaving the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTrump could be technically liable just as I think dozens of prominent figures have been technically liable,\u201d said Daniel Rice, a University of Arkansas law professor and constitutional law expert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the possible reasons for the law\u2019s dormancy, Rice said, is a disinclination by prosecutors to \u201cturn violators into martyrs\u201d or to be seen as targeting a sitting president\u2019s political adversaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump himself was briefed by then-White House counsel Don McGahn about the Logan Act following a\u00a0well-publicized episode involving his first national security adviser. In a phone call during the presidential transition period in 2016, Michael Flynn urged Russia\u2019s ambassador to the U.S. to be \u201ceven-keeled\u201d in response to Obama administration penalties imposed for election interference and assured him that \u201cwe can have a better conversation\u201d after Trump became president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flynn was interviewed by the FBI about that conversation and\u00a0pleaded guilty to lying to agents about it, though Trump\u00a0pardoned Flynn in the final weeks of his presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump later called for former Secretary of State John Kerry\u00a0to be prosecuted for violating the Logan Act over his conversations with Iran after he left the Obama administration. Kerry was never charged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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