Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker doesn’t want to subpoena the translator who was in the room when President Trump talked privately for two hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki this week.
[Chuck Schumer demands notes from Trump’s closed meeting with Putin]
“It feels a little out of bounds,” Corker told a group of reporters Thursday. “We are in countries where we have translators that meet with us. They know nothing about foreign policy, most of them. I just think we are getting into a pretty weird area when you are going to start asking the translator for their notes.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., has called on Corker, R-Tenn., to summon the translator to appear at a hearing before the Foreign Relations panel to reveal what Trump and Putin discussed. And at least one House Democrat has also called for subpoenaing the translator.
Corker told reporters he’d rather learn about the meeting by questioning Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who will testify at the panel’s public hearing on Wednesday.
“I’m not going to say no, no, no,” Corker, a critic of Trump’s Helsinki performance, said. “But let’s have this hearing on Wednesday and see what we can learn through normal channels.”
Corker said asking the translator to get involved would open up potential problems with others who use translators, or perhaps off the record conversations between lawmakers and reporters.
“I have a lot of off the record conversations myself,” Corker said.
