Apple’s Tim Cook visits White House

Apple CEO Tim Cook sat down with White House officials while in Washington on Tuesday, but an aide declined to say whether or not he spent time with President Obama. 

“The president and his advisers regularly meet with stakeholders — including CEOs, business owners, advocates and others — on a range of issues,” a White House official told The Hill, not specifying whom Cook met with.

{mosads}“These conversations cover a variety of topics.”

Cook also met with Sen. Orrin Hatch Tuesday to talk about the Utah Republican’s tech agenda for 2015. The senator has been a proponent of reforming the nation’s patent laws and requiring police to obtain a warrant before they search people’s emails.

The Apple chief himself has been notably quiet on the political front, but he was in Washington this week to mark World AIDS Day on Monday.

Apple has a robust lobbying team in Washington, however, which has occasionally sparred with the Obama administration.

Most recently, tensions between the Silicon Valley tech giant and the administration came to a head over government spying at the National Security Agency (NSA). Concerns about the spy agency have caused consumers around the globe to abandon U.S. products, dealing a major blow to companies’ bottom lines.

Apple has also run into opposition from the Obama administration over its new iPhones, which automatically encrypt data to prevent anyone — even the police with a warrant — from accessing information stored on the phone without the user’s consent.

FBI Director James Comey has openly criticized the move, which he said could make it harder for cops to catch murderers and kidnappers. 

Justin Sink contributed