President had secret meeting with Putin at G20 summit

PRESIDENT Donald Trump held a second, secret meeting with Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20, it emerged last night.

The meeting, confirmed by the White House, was attended by only Mr Trump, Mr Putin and the Russian leader’s translator – leading to questions as to why the US president did not invite any other Americans to the meeting.

Ian Bremmer, the president of the Eurasia Group, who revealed that the meeting had taken place, said it was a breach of national security protocol for Mr Trump not to have his own translator present for the hour-long encounter.

And it will add to concerns about transparency from an administration which has bridled at press scrutiny – now all but abandoning the tradition of daily on-camera press briefings, and chafing against the traditional “pool” of reporters following the president around.

Furthermore, the timing is deeply embarrassing for the White House as it struggles to deal with allegations of Russian meddling in the election, and secret meetings between the Trump campaign and Kremlin-linked figures.

A man who works for a Moscowbased property developer was yesterday identified as the eighth person present at a controversial meeting hosted by Donald Trump Jr during the US presidential campaign last year.

Ike Kaveladze represented developers Emin and Aras Agalarov at the meeting in Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, his lawyer confirmed. He has been contacted by Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating any links between the campaign and Russia.

Those at the Trump Tower meeting also included Mr Trump’s then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his sonin-law Jared Kushner, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, and a Us-russian lobbyist.