Presidents' phone calls with world leaders often involve considerable advance planning. State Department and National Security Council officials typically prepare scripted talking points and background on the leader on the other end of the line. Often an informal transcript of the call is made and circulated among a select group - sometimes a small clutch of aides, sometimes a broader group of foreign policy officials. Those records are preserved and archived.

 

The White House did not respond to questions on whether the president is keeping records of any less-formal calls with world leaders. Trump's White House is already facing scrutiny for apparent efforts to work outside usual diplomatic channels.

 

The administration has been fending off questions about a senior aide's attempt to set up a secret back channel of communication with Moscow in the weeks before Trump took office. White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, met in December with Russia's ambassador to the US and discussed whether a secret line of communication could be used to facilitate sensitive policy discussions about the conflict in Syria, according to a person familiar with the talks.

It was unclear whether an impromptu, informal call with a foreign leader would be logged and archived. The Presidential Records Act of 1981, passed in response to the Watergate scandal, requires that the president and his staff preserve all records related to the office. In 2014, the act was amended to include personal emails.

But the law contains "blind spots" — namely, record-keeping for direct cellphone communications, said Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School, who specializes in public interest and national security law.

中文譯文如下：

在現(xiàn)代移動(dòng)社會(huì)，世界各國(guó)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人彼此撥打手機(jī)的想法似乎沒(méi)什么大驚小怪的。但是在外交舞臺(tái)上，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人之間的通話是經(jīng)過(guò)精心安排的，這是對(duì)官方渠道不信任的特朗普又一次公然違反外交禮節(jié)。

 

美國(guó)總統(tǒng)與世界領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人通話前要進(jìn)行大量的前期安排。國(guó)務(wù)院和國(guó)家安全委員會(huì)官員通常會(huì)事先準(zhǔn)備談話要點(diǎn)，以及對(duì)方領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人的背景資料。通話過(guò)程會(huì)生成非正式文本并在選定的小組成員間傳閱，小組成員有時(shí)是幾個(gè)助手，有時(shí)還包含更多外交政策官員。這些記錄都會(huì)被保存歸檔。

 

白宮沒(méi)有回應(yīng)特朗普是否保留了與世界領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人任意一通非正式通話的記錄。特朗普白宮團(tuán)隊(duì)已經(jīng)因?yàn)樵噲D通過(guò)正常外交渠道以外的方式工作而面臨審查。

 

在特朗普就職前幾周，他的一名高級(jí)助手試圖與莫斯科建立秘密溝通渠道，特朗普政府一直回避有關(guān)質(zhì)疑。據(jù)一位知情人士稱(chēng)，白宮顧問(wèn)賈瑞德•庫(kù)什納（特朗普的女婿）去年12月會(huì)見(jiàn)俄羅斯駐美大使，與其協(xié)商是否可以開(kāi)通一條秘密通訊線路，以便于雙方就有關(guān)敘利亞沖突的敏感政策進(jìn)行討論。

 

目前還不能明確與外國(guó)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人即興、非正式的通話是否將被記錄存檔。水門(mén)事件之后，美國(guó)通過(guò)了《1981年總統(tǒng)記錄法案》，該法案要求總統(tǒng)及其屬下保存所有與工作有關(guān)的記錄。2014年，法案修正案將私人電子郵件納入記錄范疇。

 

喬治華盛頓大學(xué)法學(xué)院公共利益和國(guó)家安全法專(zhuān)業(yè)的教授喬納森•特利表示，手機(jī)直接通訊的記錄保存是該法案的“盲區(qū)”。