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00:00Papers with U.S. State Department markings found Friday morning in the business center of an Alaskan
00:04hotel revealed previously undisclosed and potentially sensitive details about the
00:08August 15th meetings between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin
00:12in Anchorage. Eight pages that appear to have been produced by U.S. staff and left behind
00:16accidentally shared precise locations and meeting times of the summit and phone numbers of U.S.
00:21government employees. At around 9 a.m. on Friday, three guests at Hotel Captain Cook,
00:25a four-star hotel located 20 minutes from the joint base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage where
00:30leaders from the U.S. and Russia convened, found the documents left behind in one of the hotel's
00:34public printers. NPR reviewed photos of the documents taken by one of the guests, who NPR agreed not to
00:40identify because the guests said they feared retaliation. The first page in the printed
00:44packet disclosed the sequence of meetings for August 15th, including the specific names of the
00:48rooms inside the base in Anchorage where they would take place. It also revealed that Trump intended
00:53to give Putin a ceremonial present. POTUS to President Putin. The document states,
00:57American Bald Eagle Desk Statue. On Saturday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly
01:02dismissed the papers as a multi-page lunch menu and suggested leaving the information on a public
01:07printer was not a security breach. The U.S. Department of State did not respond to requests
01:12for comment. Pages 2 through 5 of the documents listed the names and phone numbers of three U.S.
01:17staff members as well as the names of 13 U.S. and Russian state leaders. The list provided
01:21phonetic pronouncers for all the Russian men expected at the summit, including Mr. President
01:26Pyotin. Pages 6 and 7 in the packet described how lunch at the summit would be served and for whom.
01:31A menu included in the documents indicated that the luncheon was to be held in honor of His
01:35Excellency Vladimir Putin. A seating chart shows that Putin and Trump were supposed to sit across
01:40from each other during the luncheon. Trump would be flanked by six officials, Secretary of State Marco
01:45Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseff and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to his right,
01:49and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Besson, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik and Special Envoy for
01:54Peace Mission Steve Witkoff to his left. Putin would be seated immediately next to his Minister
01:58of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, and his aide to the President for Foreign Policy, Yuri Ushakov.
02:03During the summit Friday, lunch was apparently cancelled, but it was intended to be a simple
02:08three-course meal. The documents showed, after a green salad, the world leaders would dine on filet
02:13mignon and halibut Olympia. Creme brulee would be served for dessert. John Michaels, a professor of law
02:18at UCLA who lectures about national security, said that the documents found in the printer of the
02:22Alaskan Hotel reveal a lapse in professional judgment in preparation for a high-stakes meeting.
02:27It strikes me as further evidence of the sloppiness and the incompetence of the administration,
02:32said Mike. You just don't leave things in printers. It's that simple. The printed papers
02:36are the latest example of a series of security breaches by officials of the Trump administration.
02:41Earlier this week, members of a law enforcement group chat that included members of U.S.
02:45Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, added a random person to a conversation about an ongoing
02:50search for a convicted attempted murderer. In March, U.S. national security leaders
02:54accidentally included a journalist in a group chat about impending military strikes in Yemen.
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