Trump says he learned 'couple of days ago' of son's meeting with Russian lawyer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he was unaware of his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer until recently.

Trump told the Reuters news agency in a White House interview before departing for Paris Wednesday that he "didn't know until a couple of days ago when I heard about this."

Trump also defended his son's decision to take the meeting, saying he thinks "many people" would have done the same.

Donald Trump Jr. was told the lawyer had compromising information on Hillary Clinton that was being shared as part of a Russian government effort to help his father in the 2016 presidential election campaign.

Trump also said he spent the first 20 or 25 minutes of his lengthy meeting with Vladimir Putin confronting him last week and asking him about election meddling. Trump says Putin denied the conclusions of U.S. intelligence officials that Russia was behind the effort.

Putin told reporters afterward that Trump accepted his denials.