Politics - News Analysis

Trump Ended Up Meeting With Putin At G20 Summit After All — Despite Claiming He Cancelled Meeting

Donald Trump cancelled his official meeting with Vladimir Putin, but the White House confirmed today he had an “informal conversation” with the Russian leader at last night’s G20 dinner.

Trump said the meeting was called off over Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian ships. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo affirmed that statement on CNN today and dismissed the idea it had anything to do with the big Michael Cohen news hours before the announcement.

A statement from Sarah Huckabee Sanders informed reporters of Trump’s “informal conversations” with world leaders last night, including Putin:

It is unclear exactly what topics the leaders discussed.

Trump’s interaction with Putin comes as the relationship between the two presidents is once again thrust into the spotlight amid new developments in the ongoing investigation into Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

A slew of headlines surrounding special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow in 2016 have emerged in recent days, causing the president to once again blast the probe as a “witch hunt.”

Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty on Thursday for misstatements he made to Congress in 2017 regarding his contacts with Russians during the 2016 campaign about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow that never materialized. The plea deal included cooperation with Mueller’s probe.

The plea deal revealed that negotiations with the Russian government to develop the project lasted far longer into 2016 than previously known and that Cohen kept Trump abreast of the developments along the way.

Twitter called Trump out:

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