Latest news with #sensitiveinformation
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Government papers found in Alaskan hotel at Trump-Putin summit
A dossier containing details about timings and locations for the Alaska summit was reportedly found by hotel guests on a printer hours before Donald Trump greeted Vladimir Putin. The papers, which appeared to have been prepared by US state department staff, included potentially sensitive information about the high-stakes talks. The eight-page document was found at around 9am on Friday by three guests at Hotel Captain Cook, located around 20 minutes from the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson base in Anchorage, according to NPR. The document included details of the Aug 15 schedule, including specific names of the rooms inside the Anchorage base where each meeting would take place. A seating plan as well as information about Mr Trump planning to give Putin a ceremonial present of an 'American Bald Eagle Desk Statue' were also included in the documents, the outlet reported. The document states it was produced by the Office of the Chief of Protocol. It is not known who left the schedule on the printer, but Mr Trump's protocol chief is Monica Crowley, a former Fox News analyst. The papers reportedly list the names and phone numbers of three US staff members as well as the names of 13 US and Russian state leaders. It also included phonetic pointers for how to pronounce the names of the Russians expected at the summit, including 'Mr President POO-tihn'. The dossier also contained details about Friday's planned luncheon, which did not go ahead. According to the document, the two world leaders would have sat opposite one another, flanked by their respective delegations. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, was supposed to sit next to Mr Trump, on his right, with Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff. Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce, and special envoy Steve Witkoff would have sat to Mr Trump's left. They would have started with a green salad, followed by filet mignon and halibut Olympia and crème brûlée for dessert. Anna Kelly, the White House deputy press secretary, denied that leaving the papers, which she described as a 'multi-age lunch menu', in public did not amount to a security breach. Tommy Pigott, the principal deputy spokesman for the state department, told The Telegraph: 'Instead of covering the historic steps towards peace achieved at Friday's summit, NPR is trying to make a story out of a lunch menu. Ridiculous.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
State department papers left behind on Alaska hotel printer reveal sensitive Trump-Putin summit details
U.S. State Department documents containing sensitive government information were discovered on a public printer at an Alaska hotel, two hours before a high-stakes summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Eight pages — containing a schedule, several phone numbers of government employees, and a luncheon menu — were found in a public hotel printer at Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage, a 20-minute drive from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson where the two world leaders met Friday to discuss the future of the war in Ukraine. Three guests staying at Hotel Captain Cook found the pages around 9 a.m. Friday, two hours before the summit began, according to NPR. It's not clear who left the papers but seven of the pages were 'produced by the Office of the Chief of Protocol', according to images obtained by NPR, which is part of the State Department. The hotel, which has 550 rooms, declined to comment on where the printers were Independent has also contacted the U.S. State Department and White House about the incident, who was responsible for handling the documents, and whether it is considered a security breach. A White House spokesperson told NPR that abandoning the documents in a public printer was not considered a security breach. The first five pages contain the sequence of the day's events, including the participants, locations, and times. Below the names of Putin and his Russian aides sits a pronunciation for each name. Under the Russian president's name, the file suggests: 'POO-tihn." The pages also contained phone numbers of government employees and a gift that Trump planned to give Putin, described as 'American Bald Eagle Desk Statue.' The sixth page showed a lunch seating chart. The two world leaders were seated at the center of the table, flanked on both sides by their respective officials, six for Trump and five for Putin. The seating chart showed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and White House Chief Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff. Putin's group would include his Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, his Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, and Minister of Defense Andrey Belousov. The seventh page revealed the menu for lunch, which ended up being cancelled Friday. The first course would have offered a green salad with champagne vinaigrette dressing and sourdough bread with rosemary lemon butter. For the main course, there would've been a choice of either filet mignon with brandy peppercorn sauce or halibut Olympia. Buttery whipped potatoes and roasted asparagus were intended to be offered as sides while the planned dessert was créme brulé with ice cream, the documents revealed. The last document showed what appeared to be a stylized copy of the menu. At the top read: "Luncheon in honor of his excellency Vladimir Putin." Speaking to NPR, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly brushed off the discovery as a "multi-page lunch menu" and suggested leaving the documents on a public printer was not a security breach. The Trump administration has had several high-profile security breaches in its early months. In March, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sent sensitive information about a planned U.S. military strike in Yemen to senior officials and a journalist from The Atlantic on the messaging platform, Signal. The incident, dubbed 'Signalgate,' led to the ousting of Mike Waltz, Trump's national security adviser. Other lawmakers and security experts lambasted the administration over the latest incident in Alaska. 'How many more headlines are we going to read about INCOMPETENT security breaches by the Trump Admin???' Florida Democratic Congressman Darren Soto posted on X Saturday. Jon Michaels, a UCLA law professor who specializes in national security law, told NPR the incident 'strikes me as further evidence of the sloppiness and the incompetence of the administration." "You just don't leave things in printers. It's that simple,' he added. Trump and Putin met at the Alaska military base on Friday afternoon to discuss an end to the war, more than three years after Russia's invasion. The leaders announced 'great progress' had been made, but they still did not reach any kind of plan to end the war.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
State department papers left behind on Alaska hotel printer reveal sensitive Trump-Putin summit details
U.S. State Department documents containing sensitive government information were discovered on a public printer at an Alaska hotel, two hours before a high-stakes summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Eight pages — containing a schedule, several phone numbers of government employees, and a luncheon menu — were found in a public hotel printer at Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage, a 20-minute drive from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson where the two world leaders met Friday to discuss the future of the war in Ukraine. Three guests staying at Hotel Captain Cook found the pages around 9 a.m. Friday, two hours before the summit began, according to NPR. It's not clear who left the papers but seven of the pages were 'produced by the Office of the Chief of Protocol', according to images obtained by NPR, which is part of the State Department. The hotel, which has 550 rooms, declined to comment on where the printers were located. The Independent has also contacted the U.S. State Department and White House about the incident, who was responsible for handling the documents, and whether it is considered a security breach. A White House spokesperson told NPR that abandoning the documents in a public printer was not considered a security breach. The first five pages contain the sequence of the day's events, including the participants, locations, and times. Below the names of Putin and his Russian aides sits a pronunciation for each name. Under the Russian president's name, the file suggests: 'POO-tihn." The pages also contained phone numbers of government employees and a gift that Trump planned to give Putin, described as 'American Bald Eagle Desk Statue.' The sixth page showed a lunch seating chart. The two world leaders were seated at the center of the table, flanked on both sides by their respective officials, six for Trump and five for Putin. The seating chart showed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and White House Chief Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff. Putin's group would include his Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, his Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, and Minister of Defense Andrey Belousov. The seventh page revealed the menu for lunch, which ended up being cancelled Friday. The first course would have offered a green salad with champagne vinaigrette dressing and sourdough bread with rosemary lemon butter. For the main course, there would've been a choice of either filet mignon with brandy peppercorn sauce or halibut Olympia. Buttery whipped potatoes and roasted asparagus were intended to be offered as sides while the planned dessert was créme brulé with ice cream, the documents revealed. The last document showed what appeared to be a stylized copy of the menu. At the top read: "Luncheon in honor of his excellency Vladimir Putin." Speaking to NPR, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly brushed off the discovery as a "multi-page lunch menu" and suggested leaving the documents on a public printer was not a security breach. The Trump administration has had several high-profile security breaches in its early months. In March, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sent sensitive information about a planned U.S. military strike in Yemen to senior officials and a journalist from The Atlantic on the messaging platform, Signal. The incident, dubbed 'Signalgate,' led to the ousting of Mike Waltz, Trump's national security adviser. Other lawmakers and security experts lambasted the administration over the latest incident in Alaska. 'How many more headlines are we going to read about INCOMPETENT security breaches by the Trump Admin???' Florida Democratic Congressman Darren Soto posted on X Saturday. Jon Michaels, a UCLA law professor who specializes in national security law, told NPR the incident 'strikes me as further evidence of the sloppiness and the incompetence of the administration." "You just don't leave things in printers. It's that simple,' he added. Trump and Putin met at the Alaska military base on Friday afternoon to discuss an end to the war, more than three years after Russia's invasion. The leaders announced 'great progress' had been made, but they still did not reach any kind of plan to end the war.
RNZ News
28-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Drip, drip, drip: NZ's biggest political leaks
Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche has issued a fresh directive to public servants to stop leaking sensitive information. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche has issued a fresh directive to public servants to stop leaking sensitive information after a wave of material finding its way to the media. One problem: an email containing that instruction was promptly leaked to RNZ . Here are some recent stories to eventuate from leaks in recent history: RNZ was blocked from publishing a story earlier this month after sighting a confidential pre-Budget document related to the education portfolio . The Attorney-General was granted an emergency injunction by the High Court after arguing the document contained "commercially sensitive information" which would damage the government's ability to engage in collective bargaining. The National-ACT-NZ First coalition's term has been coloured by an unusually large number of leaks from the public service. They include: Former Health NZ IT worker Barry Young was arrested in 2023 and charged with accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes. He stands accused of leaking personal Covid-19 vaccine data relating to at least 12,000 people. Hamish Walker and Michelle Boag. Photo: RNZ & Boag Allan SvG In 2020, then-National backbencher Hamish Walker admitted leaking information containing Covid-19 patient information to media. The details included the full names, addresses, ages and quarantine locations of 18 active Covid-19 cases. Former National president Michelle Boag - then acting chief executive of Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust - subsequently revealed she was the person who shared the material with Walker. Both Walker and Boag resigned from their respective roles amid the backlash. Though not a leak in the traditional sense, the opposition National Party released sensitive details about the 2019 Budget ahead of its official release. Treasury initially claimed it had been "deliberately and systematically hacked" but it was later revealed National had simply accessed the documents using the website's search function. Former National leader Simon Bridges. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Simon Bridges commissioned a no-holds-barred inquiry in 2018 after details of his travel and accommodation expenses were leaked to Newshub. The PwC investigation was unable to identify the leaker with certainty but said the evidence pointed to then-MP Jami-Lee Ross. The findings set off an extraordinary cascade of events beginning with Ross' expulsion from the caucus. Ross then released politically embarrassing secret recordings of Bridges. Ross also went to the police with criminal allegations which ultimately ended up before the courts - though with Ross in the crosshairs, not Bridges. Ultimately, everyone charged was found not guilty. Weeks out from the 2017 election, an anonymous tipster told media Winston Peters had been overpaid the pension for seven years to the tune of nearly $18,000. Following media enquiries Peters issued a statement confirming most of the allegations and revealing he had since paid the money back. Furious at the leak, the NZ First leader later launched legal action against senior public servants and former Cabinet ministers - including Paula Bennett, Anne Tolley, Brendan Boyle and Peter Hughes. Peters ultimately lost the High Court case and subsequent appeal.
