Trump Jr. changes story on meeting
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump’s eldest son changed his account over the weekend of a meeting he had with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, saying Sunday that the woman told him she had information about Democrat Hillary Clinton.
A statement from Donald Trump Jr. one day earlier made no mention of Clinton. In his initial depiction of the meeting last June, the president’s son said the discussion focused on a disbanded program that used to allow American adoptions of Russian children.
It appeared that Trump Jr. shifted his account of the meeting after being presented with additional information from The New
York Times, which first reported both the discussion and the prospect of negative information about Clinton.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, is disavowing knowledge of the Russian lawyer, or any meeting between Trump senior staff and the woman.
The meeting with Kremlinlinked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya is the earliest known private meeting between key aides to the president and a Russian. Federal and congressional investigators are probing whether Trump’s campaign co-ordinated with Russia to meddle in the presidential election, investigations the president has called a “hoax.”
Jared Kushner, Trump’s sonin-law and White House senior adviser, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting with Veselnitskaya.
In his statement Sunday, Trump Jr. said he was asked by an acquaintance he knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant to have a meeting with a person he was told might have information that would be “helpful” to the Trump campaign. He said he was not told the name of the person ahead of the meeting.
Trump Jr. said the attorney claimed during the discussion to have information that “individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee” and supporting Clinton.
“No details or supporting information was provided or even offered,” Trump Jr. said. “It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”
On Saturday, Trump Jr. had described the same gathering as a “short introductory meeting” during which the three discussed a program that used to allow U.S. citizens to adopt Russian children. Russia ended the adoptions in response to American sanctions.
Trump Jr. does not serve in the administration and is not required to disclose his foreign contacts.