President Donald Trump appears to have amended a prepared statement he read in front of cameras Tuesday aimed at walking back comments he made the day before where he sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin over US intelligence agencies on the issue of interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Speaking from the White House, Trump read from a typed statement to quell the widespread outrage from Monday's news conference with Russia's leader and reinforce his support of US intelligence officials.

But, as captured by several news photographers in the room, the president added to and crossed out parts of the statement with a black Sharpie.

"There was no colusion [sic]," he apparently wrote in capital letters. The document also contained a line vowing to bring election hackers to justice that had been crossed out.