Ex-FBI agent on Trump-Putin calls: There are tapes

A former FBI agent suggested that Vladimir Putin likely kept recordings of his phone calls with former President Trump.

Asha Rangappa, a former FBI special agent, wrote on social media platform X that it is “almost certain” Russia has recordings of Trump’s phone calls with with Putin from over the years. Her comment comes after reporting from Bob Woodward’s new book revealed that Trump had phone calls with Putin after leaving office.

“The thing no one is talking about with regard to Trump’s Pooty calls over the last several years is that no only do we not know what they talked about,, it’s almost certain that Russia has recordings of them," she said, adding that Russia likely has “leverage.”

The thing no one is talking about with regard to Trump's Pooty calls over the last several years is that not only do we not know what they talked about, it's almost certain that Russia has recordings of them. Which means they have leverage. (I know, what's new, but still.) — Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) October 9, 2024

Trump has faced scrutiny for his relationship with Putin over the years, including when he has praised the Russian leader at times. The Harris campaign has jumped on the latest reporting, with Gov. Tim Walz (D) taking aim at Trump over the reported phone calls this week.

“There’s news reporting that Donald Trump has had as many as seven private phone calls with Vladimir Putin. I can guarantee you that Kamala Harris and I do not have dictators on speed dial," Walz said at a rally this week.

Woodward’s new book also reported that Trump sent Putin COVID-19 testing machines for his personal use at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that the Kremlin confirmed Trump sent Putin the testing machines.

Woodward reports that Trump asked an aide to leave his office at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, so that the former president could have a private call with Putin in early 2024. The aide, whom Woodward doesn’t name, said there have been multiple calls between Trump and Putin since Trump left office, perhaps as many as seven, according to the book, though it does not detail what they discussed.

Trump senior adviser and longtime aide Jason Miller told Woodward that he had not heard Trump was having calls with Putin and said, “I’d push back on that.” But Miller also said, according to the book, “I’m sure they’d know how to get in touch with each other."

Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said none of the stories in Woodward’s books are true. In a statement on Tuesday, he called them “the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the reporting about the calls was “not true.”

Could U.S. intelligence have captured the call?

In addition, The Bulwark spoke to Lawrence Pfeiffer, director of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and National Security at George Mason University about the possibility.

The Bulwark: What are the odds that somewhere in the intelligence community, there’s a record of what was said on these phone calls between Trump and Putin? And to the degree you can answer, how and why do you think the IC would have collected that information?

Larry Pfeiffer: I have no idea if anybody has collected anything, nor if they’ve got the capability to target Vladimir Putin’s private cell phone. If it were to have been collected, it would likely be because the Russian side of the phone call would have been targeted as a legitimate foreign intelligence target—either Putin’s phone, his office phone, his aide’s phone, something along those lines. There’s always a possibility that it could be encrypted, which means maybe all we have is the fact of the call and not the content of the call.

If the call was intercepted, it would likely have been intercepted by NSA. The only way anyone in the domestic side of things like the FBI would have the call is if there was some active criminal investigation against the U.S. end of that phone call, and I’m not sure there’s an active U.S. investigation into Trump right now.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.