WASHINGTON _ Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had a second encounter while at the G-20 summit in Germany earlier this month that wasn't disclosed at the time, a White House official said Tuesday.
The U.S. and Russian presidents had a conversation during a dinner July 7 at the summit in Hamburg after spending more than two hours in a formal bilateral meeting earlier in the day, Michael Anton, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said.
"There was a couples-only social dinner at the G-20," Anton said in response to questions. "Toward the end, the president spoke to Putin at the dinner."
Anton didn't provide details about who else was with Trump during the conversation with Putin, the topics or how long the two men talked. Such informal side encounters between leaders are common at summits, but the White House didn't reveal the Trump-Putin conversation at the time.
The encounter was first reported by the Eurasia Group's Ian Bremmer in his newsletter on Monday. Bremmer, citing unidentified sources, wrote that Trump got up from his seat at the dinner and sat down next to Putin and the two spoke "animatedly" for about an hour. Bremmer said his sources told him only Putin's translator was present, though that couldn't be independently confirmed.
During their formal meeting, Trump said he confronted Putin about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election but, by his own admission, only pressed the issue twice before moving onto other subjects. Trump later told reporters that he'd like to invite Putin to the White House when the timing is right.
