https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...m-putin-766743
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I've seen a few media reports on this. None of them mention whether or not the letter was "secret" or vetted through appropriate/required protocols for diplomatic communications. I assume that since Sen. Paul told the world about it, it's not a secret, but the optics on this look really bad at the moment.
Rand must be on 24 hour surveillance. They want to know what he will say to Putin and vice versa.
I am very proud of Rand Paul. This beats anything he has done thus far. Trump trusts him to communicate with the Russians and likely ferret out info on our own traitors.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/08/polit...ump/index.html
Quote:
"At Senator Paul's request, President Trump provided a letter of introduction. In the letter, the President mentioned topics of interest that Senator Paul wanted to discuss with President Putin," White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement.
Quote:
A White House official told CNN that Paul wanted this letter from Trump in hopes of setting up a meeting with Putin during his trip to Moscow this week. A meeting between Paul and Putin has not happened and isn't expected to happen at the moment.
The topics that Paul said were included in the letter are things Paul wished to discuss with Putin, not topics Trump asked him to raise with Putin, the official told CNN.
Paul spoke with Trump multiple times ahead of the senator's travel to Moscow, both in person and in the Oval Office, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
Paul, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had planned this Russia trip before the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, Finland last month, the source said. After the summit, Paul and Trump discussed the senator's planned meetings with Russian officials and the messages the president wanted Paul to convey to them.