WASHINGTON _ Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that the Trump administration is not giving Russia a "free pass" on interference in last year's U.S. election.
Tillerson, on NBC's "Meet the Press, was questioned about an assertion by Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, that the issue was not raised during his talks last week in Washington with the secretary, or at a White House meeting with President Donald Trump.
Tillerson did not directly confirm that Russian election-meddling went unaddressed in the talks, but said "we're not trying to start with a clean slate" in dealings with Moscow.
"We're starting with the slate we have, and all the problems that are on that slate," he said. "We don't dismiss any of them. We don't give anyone a free pass on any of them."
Discussing Russia and the election has become something of a minefield for Trump's senior aides. The difficulties mounted this past week after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey while he was in the midst of overseeing an investigation into Russian interference and the possibility of collusion on the part of people associated with Trump's campaign.
Trump himself has acknowledged the U.S. intelligence finding that interference occurred, but says its effect cannot be known.
Asked to whether he believes Russian meddling took place, Tillerson said Moscow's election-linked cyberattacks had been a proven problem for the United States and for other countries as well.
"I think it's been well documented _ it's pretty well understood, the nature of that interference, here and elsewhere," he said.
"These are not new tactics on the part of the Russian government," he said.
Tillerson said Comey's firing did not cause him any concerns about his own degree of independence in carrying out his duties.
"I have a great relationship with the president," he said. "I understand what his objectives are. When I'm not clear on what his objectives are, we talk about it."
Tillerson demurred when asked about the participation of Russia's ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, in the Oval Office meeting Wednesday between Trump and Lavrov.
Kislyak is a major figure in the investigation of Russian interference. Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was fired in February for lying about the nature of conversations he had with the ambassador before Trump's inauguration.
The Russian envoy's presence at the meeting was not disclosed by the White House, but Russia's state-sponsored news agency, Tass, released photos of the encounter, which was closed to U.S. journalists.
Asked why Kislyak's participation was not made public by the Trump administration, Tillerson said: "You'd have to put that question to the White House and the protocol people. ... I don't know."
