While Donald Trump has denied having contact with Russian officials prior to his inauguration, old reports have resurfaced in which the U.S. President met with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. last April in the midst of his election campaign.
At a foreign policy speech Trump gave at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington in April, Sergey Kislyak was seated in the front row, according to Politico.
The Wall Street Journal later reported Trump was “warmly” greeted by Kislyak as the then-candate met with the Russian official along with three other foreign ambassadors during a reception prior to his speech.
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Trump, who was still chasing the Republican nomination at the time, called for “an easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia” during his speech, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Less than a week ago, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied Trump had ever met with Russian officials during the campaign.
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“The big point here is the president himself knows what his involvement was, and that’s zero,” Sanders told reporters on March 3. “And I think that he’s the primary person that should be held responsible, and he had no interaction, and I think that’s what the story should be focused on.”
It was just the most recent in a long-running series of denials by Trump staff.
On Tuesday, Huckabee Sanders told AFP that “Mr. Trump was at the reception for about five minutes and then went immediately to the podium.”
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“We have no recollection of who he may have shaken hands with at the reception and we were not responsible for inviting or vetting guests.”
While Trump’s encounter with the Russian diplomat may have been just in passing, it comes on the heels of a couple of scandals involving a Trump cabinet officials and Kislyak.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign after he misled members of the Trump administration including Vice President Mike Pence over the substance of discussions he had with the ambassador in December before Trump took power.
And last week, news emerged Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to recuse himself from investigations into Russian involvement in the election after it was revealed he met with Kislyak during the campaign as well.
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