Trump: 'I never worked for Russia'

'NO BIG DEAL'

On Saturday, the Post reported Trump took notes that his interpreter made during a 2017 meeting in Hamburg with Putin that also was attended by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Trump also told the interpreter not to talk to other administration officials about what was said in the meetings, the Post said.

"I just don't know anything about it," Trump said on Monday of the interpreter's notes.

He said he had a successful meeting with Putin, adding: "We have those meetings all the time, no big deal."

Democrats said, however, they thought it was a very big deal and expressed concern about the report on the interpreter.

"It's disturbing, of course. If it's true it's disturbing and we want to get to the bottom of it," US Representative Eliot Engel said in an interview with CNN on Monday.

Engel said the House Foreign Affairs Committee he chairs is working with the Intelligence Committee to discuss a possible subpoena of the Trump-Putin interpreter. He said he would prefer not to do that, but added: "We may have no choice." "She has to be heard from, under oath, before our committee," Representative Gerry Connolly, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said on CNN.

Asked whether the committees also are considering asking Tillerson to testify, Engel said they were casting a wide net but no decisions had been made.

Republicans and White House officials have defended Trump's actions, saying he had been the victim of a number of leaks.

US intelligence agencies have concluded Moscow led a propaganda and hacking campaign designed to tip the 2016 White House race to Trump. Russia has denied interfering.

Trump repeatedly berated his former attorney general, Jeff Sessions, from recusing himself from the Russia investigation because he had worked on Trump's presidential campaign.

The president's nominee to fill Sessions' job, William Barr, will pledge to protect Mueller's investigation, according to prepared testimony released before his confirmation hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Reuters