UNDISCLOSED DINNER CHAT

Trump, Putin met twice: report

WASHINGTON• After his much-publicized, two-hour, 15-minute meeting early this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Germany, President Donald Trump met informally with the Russian leader for an additional hour later the same day.

The second meeting, unreported at the time, took place at a dinner for G20 leaders, a senior administration official said. Halfway through the meal, Trump left his seat to occupy a chair next to Putin. Trump was alone, and Putin was attended only by his official interpreter.

Trump’s newly disclosed conversation with Putin at the G20 dinner is likely to stoke further criticism, including perhaps from some fellow Republicans in Congress, that he is too cosy with the leader of a major U.S. adversary.

The only version of the conversation provided to White House aides was given by Trump, the official said. Reporters travelling with the White House were not informed, and there was no formal readout of the chat.

The administration official spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm the session, first reported Monday by Ian Bremmer, president of the New Yorkbased Eurasia Group, in a newsletter to group clients. Bremmer said in a telephone interview that he was told by two participants who witnessed it at the dinner, attended only by leaders attending the summit and some of their spouses.

Leaders who reported the meeting to him, Bremmer said, were “bemused, nonplussed, befuddled” by the animated conversation, held in full view — but not listening distance — of others present.

Putin’s aide provided the only Russian-English interpretation, the official said, because Trump’s designated dinner companion was Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Trump brought only a Japanese-English interpreter.

The formal Putin-Trump meeting earlier in the day was attended only by the leaders and interpreters, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

There was widespread confusion over whether Trump agreed, as Putin later said, to accept the Kremlin’s denial of any wrongdoing regarding interference in last year’s election.

Trump said he twice asked Putin if the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia meddled in the race were true, and Putin twice denied it, so he moved on to other subjects of importance to the relationship, including Syria.