FBI/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Monday [1-14-19] denied any ties to the Russian government, labeling a question on the subject ‘a disgrace’ after a flurry of reports over the weekend suggested the president had confiscated notes from a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and was suspected by the FBI of being a Russian asset…The Washington Post reported Sunday that Trump had seized notes from an interpreter after his meeting with Putin in Hamburg, Germany, in 2017, which then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also had attended. The president’s relationship with Putin has been the subject of scrutiny dating back to the 2016 campaign, when Trump’s warm words for the Russian president broke with standard U.S. foreign policy and stood out amid the then-GOP candidate’s otherwise get-tough foreign policy platform. Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether Russia colluded with Trump’s 2016 campaign or with individuals tied to the president.”
–Rebecca Morin, “Trump: ‘I never worked for Russia’,” Politico, January 14, 2019 11:19 am