Jen-Hsun Huang told Trump he didn’t know the person he was having an extramarital affair with was a suspected Chinese spy

President Trump said on Monday that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told him that he had no idea that a Chinese businesswoman with whom he had a close relationship was an intelligence operative for Beijing.

"I asked him that question: 'Did you know nothing about her being a spy?'" Trump told reporters at the White House. "He said, 'I had no idea she was a spy,' and I really believed him."

Trump's remarks came after a series of reports in the New York Times revealed that U.S. officials had concluded that the woman, Alice Huang, had been recruited by China's main spy agency and that Trump and other senior officials had been warned about the relationship.

The New York Times reported last month that about a year ago, Trump was briefed on electronic surveillance that showed the U.S. intelligence community believed Ms. Huang was a Chinese government operative. The president chose not to take any action on the information at the time.

National security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw the drafting of a highly classified memo this spring warning senior Trump administration officials about Huang Le and the intelligence assessment that she was a spy for China's Ministry of State Security, The New York Times reported on Friday.

On Monday, Trump said he did not remember receiving the message.

Asked whether he knew about the "alleged connections to Chinese spies" when he invited Huang aboard Air Force One to China in May, the president said: "No, I didn't hear about it at the time."

When pressed on whether he had received a briefing on the issue about a year ago, Trump declined to answer directly.

"I'll have to look it up," he said in response to questions about when he first learned of the incident. "I would definitely check with the intelligence people. Those things may have been mentioned. Of course, it didn't affect me that much."

Mr. Huang publicly acknowledged his relationship with Ms. Huang on Sunday, a move that rocked Nvidia, the powerful chipmaker driving the data center boom that underpins the U.S. economy.

Nvidia said on Sunday it was investigating Jensen Huang after he informed the board of directors of his relationship with Le Huang. (Huang Renxun and Huang Le are not related.)

"I was unfaithful to my wife," Huang said in a message to the company. "My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry."

During Trump's second term, the president and Huang have become close allies. Nvidia has donated at least $20 million to Trump’s cherished White House ballroom project fund. In addition, Huang Renxun has persuaded the president to lift the ban on chip sales to China.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, the president said his main concern was how Huang was doing amid the scandal.

"I did speak to him today just to see how he was feeling," Trump said, and "I believe he was in a lot of pain. I read his statement and I believe he was in a lot of pain. It was more about his family, his beloved wife and his family, but he was definitely in pain."

The president said the FBI has been investigating a matter involving Huang, but said he believed the businessman did nothing wrong.

Trump appeared to be referring to the Justice Department taking over a Commerce Department investigation into whether Megaspeed was illegally shipping advanced chips to China. Huang Le served as an executive at the company, and the company purchased $2 billion in Nvidia products.