In addition to their first formal meeting at the same gathering of world leaders at the Group 20 Summit, President Trump and Vladimir Putin had a second private conversation at a dinner that night – and there is no official United States record of it, The New York Times reports.
The conversation between the two reportedly lasted more than an hour, and only adds to existing questions surrounding the Trump administration’s relationship with Russia. According to the Washington Post, Trump got up midway through the meal to sit next to Putin, and they spoke with others present in the room, but with no one in earshot other than Putin’s official interpreter.
White House aides were apparently only informed of the meeting by Trump himself, and anonymous White House officials only just confirmed on Tuesday that the meeting took place – offering no additional details about it, the Times says.
“Weâre all going to be wondering what was said, and thatâs where itâs unfortunate that there was no U.S. interpreter, because there is no independent American account of what happened,â Stephen Pifer, a former ambassador to the Ukraine, told the Times. “If I was in the Kremlin, my recommendation to Putin would be, âSee if you can get this guy alone,â and thatâs what it sounds like he was able to do.”
As the White House continues to be under investigation for possible ties to Russia during the 2016 election, this meeting – and the fact that there’s no record of it – isn’t exactly a good look.