--- title: Donald Trump: Vladimir Putin Denied Election Interference description: Trump said Putin "vehemently denied" Russia's interfere in the U.S. election, and the two want to work on a cyber security initiative canonical: https://time.com/4850583/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-g20-meeting-election-hacking/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-09T14:03:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:29:00.722Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump: Vladimir Putin Denied Election Interference og:description: Trump described what he said the two discussed at the G20 summit og:url: https://time.com/4850583/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-g20-meeting-election-hacking/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70367a9c107f846a/6988d4f597cdff2a386b1833/trump-putin-g20-handshake.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3786 og:image:height: 2130 og:image:alt: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump: Vladimir Putin Denied Election Interference twitter:description: Trump described what he said the two discussed at the G20 summit twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70367a9c107f846a/6988d4f597cdff2a386b1833/trump-putin-g20-handshake.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Wants to Form a Cyber Security Unit With Vladimir Putin > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jul 9, 2017 2:03 PM UTC  President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit, July 7, 2017, in Hamburg. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit, July 7, 2017, in Hamburg. Evan Vucci—AP  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jul 9, 2017 2:03 PM UTC [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4850577/syria-cease-fire-donald-trump/) unleashed a series of tweets about his two-hour-long July 7 meeting with Russian President [Vladimir Putin](http://time.com/4850325/g20-summit-donald-trump-vladimir-putin-protests/) Sunday claiming the latter “vehemently denied” any efforts by his country to interfere in the U.S. election, and that the two want to work together on a cyber security initiative to prevent any future election hacking. The President said he “strongly” pressed the Russian leader twice about election hacking, but declined to definitively say, at least in his tweets, if he accepted this denial. “You know my opinion,” he wrote on Twitter. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/884012097805406208) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/884013689736769536) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/884016887692234753) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/884018776391503872) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/884020939264073728) The day before Trump met with Putin, he acknowledged the possibility of Russian interference in the election, but said other countries could have been responsible as well. “I think it was [Russia](http://time.com/4846396/donald-trump-warsaw-poland-russia-north-korea-vladimir-putin/), and it could have been other people in other countries,” [he said in Warsaw, Poland, on July 6.](http://time.com/4846734/donald-trump-russia-election-meddling/?iid=sr-link2) But this opinion is a divergence from U.S. intelligence agencies, which [released a report on January 6](https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA%5F2017%5F01.pdf) maintaining that Putin “ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election,” and had a clear preference for Trump. “There’s not anybody that thinks that Russia didn’t meddle in the elections,” Nikki Haley, Trump’s U.N. Ambassador, [said on](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-nikki-haley-on-face-the-nation-july-9-2017/) _Face the Nation_ Sunday. “And I think we all are very clear on that. And I think we’re going to see what Congress does and I think the president will continue to work on this going forward, but yes, I don’t think this is over.” Trump’s Chief of Staff Reince Priebus however, said on _Fox News Sunday_ that Trump “absolutely” did not believe Putin’s denial. “His answer to this question many times is they \[Russia\] probably meddled in the election,” he said. “The one thing he also says, which drives the media crazy but its an absolute fact, is others have as well.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4850583/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-g20-meeting-election-hacking/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4850583/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-g20-meeting-election-hacking/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Wants to Form a Cyber Security Unit With Vladimir Putin","datePublished":"2017-07-09T14:03:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:29:00.722Z","description":"Trump described what he said the two discussed at the G20 summit.","url":"https://time.com/4850583/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-g20-meeting-election-hacking/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70367a9c107f846a/6988d4f597cdff2a386b1833/trump-putin-g20-handshake.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70367a9c107f846a/6988d4f597cdff2a386b1833/trump-putin-g20-handshake.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin","caption":"Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin","creditText":"Evan Vucci—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4850583/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-g20-meeting-election-hacking/","name":"Donald Trump Wants to Form a Cyber Security Unit With Vladimir Putin"}}]}] ```