President Trump had a second, previously undisclosed meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit in Germany earlier this month, according to reports Tuesday.
CNN reported that Trump and Putin spoke in July at the end of a couples dinner in the main room of the summit where dinner was held following their two-hour long bilateral meeting earlier that day.
The second meeting was one-on-one, with the exception of Putin’s translator, a spokesman for the National Security Council said.
“There was a couples-only social dinner at the G-20. Toward the end, the President spoke to Putin at the dinner,” NSC spokesman Michael Anton told CNN. “No staff or Cabinet were at the dinner at all, for any of the countries.”
Anton said Trump and Putin did not meet in a private room. He declined to detail what was discussed in the second meeting, citing the fact that no staff were present. The Washington Post reported the meeting lasted an hour.
A White House official pushed back at how news outlets characterized the Trump-Putin interaction. The official told reporters that the interaction was a “brief conversation” not a “second meeting.”
“The insinuation that the White House has tried to ‘hide’ a second [Putin] meeting is false, malicious and absurd,” the official said.
The first, bilateral meeting was the first face-to-face encounter between Trump and Putin.
In that meeting, in which Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were also present, Trump and Putin discussed Russia’s election interference, and the ongoing Syrian war. It was originally scheduled to take place for half an hour, but ended up taking up two hours and 15 minutes.
18 replies12 retweets24 likesThe first, bilateral meeting was the first face-to-face encounter between Trump and Putin.In that meeting, in which Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were also present, Trump and Putin discussed Russia’s election interference, and the ongoing Syrian war. It was originally scheduled to take place for half an hour, but ended up taking up two hours and 15 minutes.
