Putin Denies Election Hacking After Trump Pressed Him, Tillerson Says

Eight months after an American election that U.S. intelligence agencies believe Russia tried to sway, President Trump and President Vladimir Putin sat for their first face-to-face talks Friday.

It was a friendly encounter that ended in confusion over whether Trump had agreed to absolve the Kremlin of any wrongdoing.

Trump, believed to be the intended beneficiary of the Russian meddling, emerged from the extraordinary meeting with a deal on a partial cease-fire in the Syrian war.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov came away from the meeting saying Trump had heard out Putin’s assurances that Moscow did not run a hacking and disinformation effort, and had dismissed the entire U.S. investigation into the Russian role.

But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who also attended the two-hour-and-16-minute meeting, told reporters at a separate news conference that during the session, Trump pressed Putin “on more than one occasion” on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.