Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats defended the intelligence community's assessment Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election hours after Russian president Vladimir Putin denied his country did any such thing.
Coats issued this statement Monday afternoon:
"The role of the intelligence community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the president and policymakers.
"We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security."
Putin has denied on multiple occasions Russia meddled in the U.S. election. President Donald Trump held a joint press conference earlier Monday with his Russian counterpart and said he raised the issue of election meddling during their private meeting.
"I addressed the issue of Russian interference in our elections. I felt this was a message best delivered in person," Trump said, adding the two leaders "spent a great deal of time talking about it."
Trump said Putin "felt very strongly about it and has an interesting idea."
Putin again denied Moscow ever interfered in the 2016 U.S. election and proposed an "expert council" to improve relations between the countries.
More than two dozen people have been indicted as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, including 12 Russians last week.
Material from Bloomberg was used in this report.