The White House said there is "no recollection" about who President Trump may have met at an event last year attended by Russia's ambassador to the U.S., but indicated it's a possibility the two men shook hands.

A May 2016 Wall Street Journal report that the president met at a VIP reception with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. resurfaced Friday. According to the publication, the two were introduced on a receiving line before Trump gave a foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. The Journal reported at the time that Trump greeted Sergey Kislyak and three other foreign ambassadors.

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White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday denied that a meeting took place in a statement to the Huffington Post.

“The National Interest hosted Mr. Trump’s foreign policy speech and pre-speech reception. Several ambassadors were present. Mr. Trump was at the reception for about five minutes and then went immediately to the podium,” she said.

“We have no recollection of who he may have shaken hands with at the reception and we were not responsible for inviting or vetting guests. To state a ‘meeting’ took place is disingenuous and extremely misleading.”

Dimitri Simes, the president of the Center for the National Interest, told the Huffington Post that there would not have been an "opportunity" for Trump to talk with Kislyak separately during the event from what he saw.