President Donald Trump said Friday that he didn’t “remember much” about the now controversial March 2016 meeting with his foreign policy advisers, including George Papadopoulos.
In the clearest connection between the campaign and Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 election, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about interactions with foreign officials close to the Russian government, according to court documents unsealed this week.
“I don’t remember much about that meeting,” Trump said on the South Lawn before leaving for his five-country, 12-day trip in Asia. “It was a very unimportant meeting, took place a long time, don’t remember much about it.”
The comment is the latest example of Trump claiming not to remember certain moments or meetings from his 2016 campaign and time in the White House, despite telling reporters last month that he had “one of the greatest memories of all time.”
During the meeting, according to the court documents, Papadopoulos said that “he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and (Russia President Vladimir Putin).”
CNN reported on Wednesday that then-candidate Trump did not immediately dismiss the idea of meeting with Putin, according to a person in the room.
“He didn’t say yes and he didn’t say no,” the official said.
Then Alabama senator and top Trump adviser Jeff Sessions, who now serves as attorney general, was in the room for the meeting and shut down the idea of a Putin meeting, according to the source.
