Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein

[scion]

Trump and Putin Met for Second Time at G-20, White House Says

Previously undisclosed conversation took place on sidelines of gathering of world leaders in Germany

By Rebecca Ballhaus Updated July 18, 2017 10:55 p.m. ET 901 COMMENTS
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-putin-met-for-second-time-at-g-20-white-house-says-1500419605

WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a second, previously undisclosed talk on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg earlier this month, a White House official said Tuesday.

The conversation took place on the same day that the two leaders met earlier for more than two hours in what Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called an “extraordinarily important meeting.”

The White House disclosed the conversation after it was reported by Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a political risk advisory group. He wrote about the meeting in a company newsletter and spoke about it in a television interview Tuesday.

The two leaders spoke during a state dinner for the world leaders and their spouses.

The White House official said Mr. Trump spoke with many leaders during the dinner and said the president “spoke briefly” with Mr. Putin, who was seated next to first lady Melania Trump, toward the end of the evening.

Mr. Bremmer said the two spoke for about an hour, joined by Mr. Putin’s translator.

The White House official said Messrs. Trump and Putin used the Russian translator because the American translator accompanying Mr. Trump spoke only English and Japanese. Mr. Trump had been seated next to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“The insinuation that the White House has tried to ‘hide’ a second meeting is false, malicious and absurd,” the White House official said. “It is not merely perfectly normal, it is part of a president’s duties, to interact with world leaders.”

In the meeting earlier in the day, Mr. Trump pressed Mr. Putin on what the intelligence community says was an extensive campaign by the Russian government to meddle in last year’s election. Mr. Trump told him that Americans are upset about Russia’s actions and want them to stop, Mr. Tillerson told reporters in a briefing. Mr. Putin denied that Russia played a role, and the two leaders agreed not to “relitigate” the past, Mr. Tillerson said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was also in the meeting, told reporters afterward that Mr. Trump accepted Mr. Putin’s contention that Russia didn’t interfere in the campaign.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Bremmer said he learned about the second Trump-Putin talk from participants at the dinner, which was attended only by world leaders and their spouses.

Mr. Bremmer said the participants described the talk as “very animated” and “very friendly.”

Mr. Trump said it was already known that he would be attending a dinner with the Russian president and 18 other world leaders. “Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is ‘sick,’” he tweeted Tuesday evening. “All G 20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!”

The dinner was closed to the news media, and White House officials hadn’t provided details of the president’s interactions during the event before Tuesday.

The news that Mr. Trump had a talk with Mr. Putin that the White House didn’t initially disclose comes as special counsel Robert Mueller investigates Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and whether Trump associates colluded with Moscow in that effort.

Mr. Trump has expressed skepticism about U.S. intelligence agencies’ consensus that Russia sought to meddle in the election, saying days before his meeting with Mr. Putin, “Nobody knows for sure.” He has repeatedly denied any collusion by his campaign.

Since his meeting with Mr. Putin, the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has released an email chain showing that he helped arrange a meeting last June to discuss allegedly damaging information about former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In that email chain, the younger Mr. Trump was told that the information was gathered as part of a Russian government effort to help his father.

Also on Tuesday, the White House announced its intent to formally nominate Jon Huntsman —former governor of Utah and ambassador to Singapore under President George H.W. Bush and to China under President Barack Obama —as ambassador to Russia.

Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at [e-mail]

Appeared in the July 19, 2017, print edition as 'Trump, Putin Held Second Talk at G-20.'

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-putin-met-for-second-time-at-g-20-white-house-says-1500419605