Trump meets with Russian foreign minister amid impeachment chaos

Donald Trump held a closed-door meeting with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, at the White House on Tuesday, but the two men gave diverging accounts of what was discussed, on a day articles of impeachment were announced against the US president.

The last time Lavrov visited the White House, in May 2017, Trump was reported to have disclosed highly classified information to him about US intelligence-sharing arrangements.

On this occasion, the press were barred from the meeting, and were handed a White House statement saying, that among other topics: “President Trump warned against any Russian attempts to interfere in United States elections.”

Asked about the statement at a press conference in the Russian embassy later the same afternoon, Lavrov claimed: “No we haven’t even actually discussed elections.”

On being challenged again about the White House statement, Lavrov contradicted himself but insisted that he had brought up the subject, complaining to Trump about remarks the same day by the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and offering to publish US-Russian correspondence on the issue from the last months of the Obama administration.

“I told him that the secretary of state mentioned that publicly,” Lavrov said, through an official translator. “And in response I have publicly reminded that we have offered the current administration to publish the correspondence in the channel that was specially established to warn about cyber threats – the correspondence that happened between Moscow and Washington between October 2016 and January 2017.”

The Russian foreign minister added: “That correspondence will show that we were prepared to cooperate on any issue that had to do with the US suspicions about our interference in elections, but the Obama administration rejected that vehemently.”

US intelligence agencies have alleged that Russia interfered extensively in the 2016 presidential election, seeking to tilt the balance towards Trump. The president and his followers have sought to play down that finding and promote claims that Ukraine interfered on behalf of Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton. US intelligence found no evidence of systematic Ukrainian interference.

On Tuesday, Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives unveiled articles of impeachment against Trump for abusing the office of the presidency in his bid to persuade Ukraine to announce an investigation into the 2016 Ukraine claims, in a bid to give them credence, and another enquiry into other political opponent, Joe Biden. Trump was also accused of obstruction of Congress, but Democrats decided against bringing an article of impeachment related to his relations with Moscow.

Earlier on Tuesday, Lavrov publicly disagreed with Pompeo about Russian election meddling.

“On the question of interference in our domestic affairs, I was clear it’s unacceptable, and I made our expectations of Russia clear,” Pompeo said. “The Trump administration will always work to protect the integrity of our elections, period. Should Russia or any foreign actor take steps to undermine our democratic processes, we will take action in response.”

Lavrov rejected the accusation, calling it baseless.

“There are no facts that would support that. We did not see these facts. No one has given us this proof because, simply, it does not exist,” Trump said.

It is not clear what correspondence between the Obama administration and the Kremlin, that Lavrov said Russia wants to publish, would prove. Barack Obama said he personally confronted Vladimir Putin on Russian meddling in the US election, telling him to “cut it out”.

It was also unclear why the Trump administration had invited Lavrov to Washington at the height of the impeachment scandal. Both US officials and Lavrov insisted that it was coincident the Russian foreign minister was in town at the same time the articles of impeachment were announced.

Pompeo said there would be news of expanded trade between the countries announced soon, but there was disagreement over the future of the Ukraine, and whether the last arms control treaty between the two countries, New Start, should be extended. Putin has said he is ready to agree to an extension of five years or less. Trump and Pompeo both insisted that any future arms control arrangements should include China, a proposal Beijing has rejected because the size of its arsenal is much smaller.