President Donald Trump was asked at a news conference whether his son, Donald Trump Jr., should have accepted a meeting with a Russian lawyer in order to potentially obtain dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Trump took questions alongside French President Emmanuel Macron on a trip to Paris. The reporter noted that FBI Director nominee Chris Wray said yesterday authorities should have been notified of the Russian contact by Trump Jr.
“Most people would have taken that meeting,” Trump answered.
Email to Trump Jr. Says Clinton Info Was Part of Moscow’s Trump Support
President’s son was told information would incriminate Hillary Clinton
The emails also appear to contradict statements by members of the campaign that they were unaware of a Russian effort to support Mr. Trump in the 2016 election. During the campaign and since his election victory, Mr. Trump repeatedly praised Mr. Putin and cast doubt on the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia sought to interfere in the election. Last week, he said in Warsaw: “Nobody knows for sure.”
In a July 24, 2016, interview with CNN, the younger Mr. Trump said the charge that Russia had mounted a campaign to help his father was “so phony.”
Trump Jr. Was Told in Email of Russian Effort to Aid Campaign
Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email.
.. During this busy period, Robert Goldstone contacted Don Jr. in an email and suggested that people had information concerning alleged wrongdoing by Democratic Party front-runner, Hillary Clinton, in her dealings with Russia
.. “He said, ‘I’m told she has information about illegal campaign contributions to the D.N.C.,’”
.. His decision to move ahead with such a meeting was unusual for a political campaign, but it was consistent with the haphazard approach the Trump operation, and the White House, have taken in vetting people they deal with ahead of time.
.. Mr. Goldstone said Ms. Veselnitskaya offered “just a vague, generic statement about the campaign’s funding and how people, including Russian people, living all over the world donate when they shouldn’t donate” before turning to her anti-Magnitsky Act arguments.
.. “It was the most inane nonsense I’ve ever heard,” he said. “And I was actually feeling agitated by it. Had I, you know, actually taken up what is a huge amount of their busy time with this nonsense?”
Reports: Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner Met with Kremlin-Linked Lawyer
Circa also reported that the meeting was short, lasting only 20 minutes. The outlet also reported that the president’s legal team believe the meeting may have been part of an election-year opposition effort to create the appearance of “improper connections” between Trump and Russia.
.. Mark Corallo, a spokesman for President Trump’s legal team, told Circa:
We have learned from both our own investigation and public reports that the participants in the meeting misrepresented who they were and who they worked for. Specifically, we have learned that the person who sought the meeting is associated with Fusion GPS, a firm which according to public reports, was retained by Democratic operatives to develop opposition research on the President and which commissioned the phony Steele dossier.
“These developments raise serious issues as to exactly who authorized and participated in any effort by Russian nationals to influence our election in any manner,” he added.