Hush-hush meeting out in the public
Trump, Putin had a second undisclosed meeting during the G-20 summit in Germany
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a previously undisclosed conversation during a dinner for G-20 leaders at a summit earlier this month in Germany, a White House official said on Tuesday.
The two leaders held a formal two-hour bilateral meeting on July 7 in which, Mr Trump later said Mr Putin denied allegations that he directed efforts to meddle in the 2016 US presidential election.
Mr Trump’s interactions with Mr Putin were scrutinised closely because of those allegations, which have dominated his first six months in the White House, and Mr Trump’s comments as a presidential candidate praising the former KGB spy.
Mr Trump and Mr Putin first met at the G-20 during a gathering of other leaders, which was shown in a video. They later held the bilateral meeting, which was attended briefly by a pool of reporters.
In the evening, both men attended a dinner with G20 leaders. Mr Putin was seated next to US First Lady Melania Trump. The US President went over to them at the conclusion of the dinner and visited with Mr Putin, the official said. That conversation had not been previously disclosed.
“There was no ‘second meeting’ between President Trump and President Putin, just a brief conversation at the end of a dinner. The insinuation that the White House has tried to ‘hide’ a second meeting is false, malicious and absurd,” the official said.
News of the conversation, first reported by Ian Bremmer, the president of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, could raise renewed concern as Congress and a special counsel investigate allegations by US intel agencies that Russia interfered to help Mr Trump, win the presidency.
Mr Bremmer said Mr Trump got up from his seat halfway through dinner and spent about an hour talking “privately and animatedly” with Mr Putin, “joined only by Mr Putin’s own translator.”
The lack of a US translator raised eyebrows at the dinner, said Mr Bremmer, who called it a “breach of national security protocol.”
There was a couples-only social dinner at the G-20. Towards the end, the President spoke to Putin at the dinner. No staff or Cabinet were at the dinner at all for any of the countries — Michael Anton, National Security Council spokesman Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is “sick.” All G 20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew! — @realDonaldTrump