U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a previously undisclosed dialogue during a dinner for G-20 leaders at a summit earlier this month in Germany, a White House official said on Tuesday.
The two leaders had also held a formal two-hour bilateral meeting on July 7, during which Trump later said Putin denied allegations that he'd directed efforts to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Trump's interactions with the Russian leader were scrutinized closely because of those allegations, which have dominated his first six months in the White House, and Trump's comments as a presidential candidate praising the former KGB spy.