WHOOPS! Sensitive Trump Summit Documents Leaked — By Being Left In Hotel Printer

Russian President Vladimir Putin (second from left), U.S. President Donald Trump (center), U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (second from right), and U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for the Middle East Steven Witkoff (right) during their meeting at the base. Credit: Dmitry Azarov/Kommersant Photo/Sipa USA(Sipa via AP Images)

NPR scored a journalistic scoop Saturday when it got ahold of sensitive details about the Alaska summit between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that were inadvertently left on a hotel printer.

The eight pages featuring “U.S. State Department markings” were found Friday by guests in the business center of a four-star Anchorage hotel.

“NPR reviewed photos of the documents taken by one of the guests, who NPR agreed not to identify because the guest said they feared retaliation,” the report said.

The papers included the previously undisclosed timeline of Trump and Putin’s meeting, the luncheon menu and seating arrangements, plus “precise locations and meeting times of the summit and phone numbers of U.S. government employees,” NPR reported.

The packet also revealed Trump’s ceremonial gift to Putin of an “American Bald Eagle Desk Statue.”

But the White House downplayed the importance of the documents, with Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly telling NPR that the papers were nothing more than a “multi-page lunch menu.” She added that leaving the papers behind  on one of the business center’s printers did not constitute a security breach.

NPR quoted Jon Michaels, a professor of law at UCLA who lectures about national security, who disagreed with the White House’s assessment.

“It 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,” Michaels said.

NPR reporter Chiara Eisner wrote, “The printed papers are the latest example of a series of security breaches by officials of the Trump administration. Earlier this week, members of a law enforcement group chat that included members of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) added a random person to a conversation about an ongoing search for a convicted attempted murderer. In March, U.S. national security leaders accidentally included a journalist in a group chat about impending military strikes in Yemen.”

Read the full NPR story here.