Trump Jr. was eager for Russia’s help, emails suggest
Agreed to meet with Kremlin-linked lawyer
• Donald Trump Jr. agreed to take a meeting during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign with a woman he was told was a “Russian government attorney” who could provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of “Russia and its government’s support” for his father’s presidential campaign, according to emails tweeted by the president’s son on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump’s eldest son posted on Twitter what he said was the entire exchange that led to a June 2016 encounter that has inflamed the controversy over potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
The email exchange showed clearly that Trump Jr. understood he was taking the meeting as a way of channelling information directly from the government of a nation hostile to the United States to his father’s campaign. It is the most concrete public evidence to date suggesting that top Trump campaign aides were eager for Russia’s assistance in the campaign.
“If it’s what you say I love it,” Trump Jr. responded to an intermediary pitching the meeting.
The emails show that Trump Jr. arranged to meet with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, along with two of the campaign’s most important advisers, Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner.
On Tuesday morning, Veselnitskaya defended herself in an NBC television interview. “I never had any damaging or sensitive information about Hillary Clinton. It was never my intention to have that,” the lawyer said.
And she told the Washington Post, “I am in shock. I’m just an ordinary person.”
The New York Times reported that Trump Jr.’s tweets Tuesday came after the newspaper informed Trump Jr. that it had reviewed the emails and intended to publish their content.
In a statement accompanying his tweets, Trump Jr. said he was releasing the entire chain “in order to be totally transparent.”
A White House spokeswoman read a brief statement from Trump about the issue on Tuesday afternoon in which he said: “My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency.”
Speaking to reporters in the White House briefing room, principal deputy White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said she would refer any questions to lawyers for the president and Trump Jr.
Later in the briefing, which was held off camera, Sanders said Trump was frustrated Russia “continues to be an issue” and is eager to focus on other things, such as tax reform.
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed a campaign to assist Trump, including the release of hacked emails stolen from Democratic officials.
Congress and a special counsel are investigating Russian interference with the election and alleged collusion with the Trump campaign — a charge the president has repeatedly denied.
The initial email released Tuesday came from a music publicist who represented Emin Agalarov, whose father, Aras, is a major real estate developer close to Putin.
“Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting,” publicist Rob Goldstone emailed Trump Jr. in June 2016. “The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.”
“This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government support for Mr. Trump — helped along by Aras and Emin,” Goldstone wrote.
Trump Jr.’s response made his enthusiasm clear: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer,” he wrote.
Goldstone offered to send the information directly to Trump but said that because the information was “ultra sensitive” he wanted to contact Trump Jr. first instead.
Trump Jr.’s willingness to accept incriminating information about Clinton could put him or others in legal jeopardy, analysts said.
“The emails tell me that he’s aware that the Russian government is trying to influence the election in favour of Trump, and they also indicate an intent to entertain the idea of working with the Russians in their efforts,” said Barak Cohen, a former federal prosecutor. “It raises a number of potential areas of liability.”
Among those are campaign finance laws. In the United States, it is illegal for foreign nationals to donate things of value in connection with an election, and it is similarly illegal for people to solicit or accept a contribution or donation from a foreigner.
“The information they suggested they had about Hillary Clinton I thought was Political Opposition Research,” Trump Jr. said in the statement Tuesday. “I decided to take the meeting. The woman, as she has said publicly, was not a government official.”
Former CIA operative Bob Baer said: “This is looking more and more like treason from a CIA officer’s point of view.”