Government documents detailing US-Russia summit found in Alaska hotel

Daily Mail​

13 hours ago

Government documents detailing Donald Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin were discovered by guests at an Alaskan hotel.
Eight pages of official government papers were left behind on printers at the four-star Hotel Captain Cook on Friday. The hotel is located 20 minutes from the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.
Precise details of the day's schedule were contained in the papers, as well as phone numbers of three US officials and pronunciation guides for the names of Russian attendees - including 'Mr. President POO-tihn'.
The drama comes amid the appearance of Trump's rarely-seen aide Monica Crowley who was yesterday seen in pictures warmly shaking hands with the grinning Russian leader.
As Chief of Protocol for the United States - an obscure officer of the State Department - Crowley is responsible for diplomatic etiquette and events.
She was in charge of creating a detailed itinerary for Putin's visit, including the vital meeting between the two countries to discuss a potential ceasefire in Ukraine.
The documents, which were produced by the Office of the Chief of Protocol, revealed the precise locations and times of the meetings between US and Russian officials
Crowley is a former Fox News contributor who is controversial for claiming that President Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim.
President Trump met with Putin in Anchorage Friday to discuss a peace proposal, though few details were disclosed about the pair's meeting.
But papers found at the Hotel Captain Cook around 9am Friday revealed exactly what rooms the Russian and US leaders convened in at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
Page one of the pack showed that Trump and Putin met near the 'American Bald Eagle Desk Statue' at the base, NPR reports.
Three pages in the document included names of US and Kremlin officials, including phonetic pronunciation for all the Russians expected to attend the summit.
The sixth and seventh pages in the document stated that a luncheon would be held in 'honor of his excellency Vladimir Putin'.
It featured the expected menu of green salad with a champagne vinaigrette dressing for the starter and a main of filet mignon or halibut, with potatoes and asparagus on the side. Guests would be served creme brûlée for dessert.
The included seating chart placed Trump across from Putin. Trump would also be sat with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff.
Putin was meant to be sat with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov and his Foreign Policy advisor Yuri Ushakov.
But it is understood that the luncheon was cancelled.
It is unclear who left behind the documents, but political analysts warn the mishap demonstrates 'sloppiness and the incompetence of the administration'.
'You just don't leave things in printers. It's that simple,' UCLA law professor and national security expert Jon Michaels told the news outlet.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly, in a statement to Daily Mail, said: 'It's hilarious that NPR is publishing a multi-page lunch menu and calling it a "security breach." This type of self-proclaimed "investigative journalism" is why no one takes them seriously and they are no longer taxpayer-funded thanks to President Trump.'
Although the documents and summit itinerary were marked as being produced by Crowley's team, there has been no official information tying her specifically to the leak.
Crowley took center stage as she charmed Vladimir Putin at the Alaska summit on Friday.
She made the Russian leader beam as they shook hands shortly before he took off from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage.
Crowley would have been in charge of coordinating with a foreign ambassador and the American Embassy overseas to make sure Putin's arrival was perfect, according to the State Department.
It would have been her job to create a detailed program for Putin's visit, including arranging the vital meeting between the two countries to discuss a potential ceasefire in Ukraine.
Crowley also accompanies the president on all his official visits, makes sure everything is paid for, and ensures things, such as flags, are in the right order.
Although it is unclear what exactly Crowley planned for Putin while he visited The Last Frontier State, she was seen sending him off as he boarded his plane following the Friday summit.
Trump's three-hour meeting with Putin was the first US-Russia summit since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
'It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,' Trump said of summit.
In the aftermath of the summit, Trump urged Ukraine to make a deal with Russia to end the war and allegedly told Volodymyr Zelensky that Putin offered to freeze most front lines if Kyiv 's forces ceded all of Donetsk. Zelensky reportedly rejected the demand.
Trump also indicated that he agrees with Putin that a peace deal should be sought without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies, until now with US support, have demanded.
His various comments on the meeting will be welcomed in Moscow, which says it wants a full settlement - not a pause - but that this will be complex because positions are 'diametrically opposed'.
Russia's forces have been gradually advancing for months. The war - the deadliest in Europe for 80 years - has killed or wounded well over a million people from both sides, including thousands of mostly Ukrainian civilians, according to analysts.
Before the summit, Trump had said he would not be happy unless a ceasefire was agreed on. But afterwards he said that, after Monday's talks with Zelensky, 'if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin'.
Monday's talks will evoke memories of a meeting in the White House Oval Office in February, where Trump and Vice President JD Vance gave Zelensky a brutal public dressing-down.
Zelensky said he was willing to meet Putin. But Putin signaled no movement in Russia's long-held positions on the war, and made no mention in public of meeting with the Ukrainian president.
Yuri Ushakov told the Russian state news agency TASS a three-way summit had not been discussed.
Both Russia and Ukraine carried out air attacks overnight, a daily occurrence in the three-and-a-half-year war.
Russia launched 85 attack drones and a ballistic missile targeting Ukraine's territory, Ukraine's Air Force said on Saturday. It said its air defense units destroyed 61 of them.
The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said 139 clashes had taken place on the front line over the past day. Russia said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed 29 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Trump told Fox that he would hold off on imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil after making progress with Putin. He did not mention India, another major buyer of Russian crude, which has been slapped with a total 50 percent tariff on US imports that includes a 25 percent penalty for the imports from Russia.
'Because of what happened today, I think I don't have to think about that now,' Trump said of Chinese tariffs. 'I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don't have to think about that right now.'
Trump ended his remarks on Friday by telling Putin, 'I'd like to thank you very much, and we'll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon.'
'Next time in Moscow,' a smiling Putin responded in English. Trump said he might 'get a little heat on that one' but that he could 'possibly see it happening.'