The meeting was held in the Oval Office, and though no US media outlets were permitted to cover the meeting, reports revealed that a Russian photographer was allowed to take photos for Russian state news agencies.

The white house released no photos.

NBC’s Andrea Mitchell first noticed that the White House’s Flicker did not include photos of Kislyak.

“I am urging USA journalists not to lose their professional dignity and not to pin the blame on other people for their failure in organizing the photoshoot and the failure to provide access to their media”.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman with Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tweeted Thursday: “The format did not imply that the photos were being kept secret”.

President Donald Trump is warning that former FBI Director James Comey “better hope” that there are no “tapes” of their conversations.

Comey confirmed in March that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into possible coordination between the Russians and Trump associates.

On Wednesday morning before meeting with Trump, Lavrov even cracked a joke about his hosts’ political predicament, laughingly claiming not to have heard of the Comey firing while standing alongside Trump’s secretary of state, Rex Tillerson.

The embarrassment was compounded by the presence of Kislyak, who is at the center of a series of questions about contacts between Trump’s inner circle and the Russian government.

The White House’s readout of Trump’s meeting with Lavrov did not mention Kislyak.

The No. 2 Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of IL, says President Donald Trump is “dangerous”.

“Yesterday, on the same day – I had meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the FM of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin”.

On January 26, deputy AG Sally Yates informed the White House that Mike Flynn had been compromised by the Russians.

The official also rejected security concerns about allowing Russian officials into the Oval Office, including Kislyak, who is widely considered to be a spy by U.S. intelligence officials.

While the administration downplayed the threat, a senior administration official acknowledged that the White House had been misled about the role of the Russian photographer, who was actually employed by a state-run news agency.

Absolutely stunning, as was the decision to block American reporters but allow Russian state media to come into the oval office. “Was it a good idea to let a Russian gov photographer & all their equipment into the Oval Office?”

“No, it was not”, David S Cohen, the former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, replied. I took only two cameras to the photoshoot, I left all my stuff, including my cellphone, in another room as I was told to do. I was scanned, patted down, and then sniffed by canines. He said Russian Federation will continue to leverage its military support to the Bashar Al-Assad regime to drive a political settlement process in Syria “on their terms”. She said it’s particularly concerning considering Trump might be soon seeking North Atlantic Treaty Organisation assistance for more allied troops in Afghanistan, sanctions on Russian Federation for its invasion of Ukraine and more advantageous trade deals.

The president tweeted early Friday that “Again, the story that there was collusion between the Russians & Trump campaign was fabricated by Dems as an excuse for losing the election”.