White House in crisis over Donald Jr.’s emails
White House in crisis over Russia emails
Donald Trump defended his eldest son Wednesday, declaring him “innocent” and a victim of the “greatest witch hunt in political history” as he sought to counter the gravest crisis to face his administration so far.
The White House was plunged into what one ally called a “category 5 hurricane” after Donald Trump Jr. was forced to disclose emails. The messages showed he had enthusiastically agreed to meet with a “Russian government lawyer” during last year’s election campaign in a bid to obtain damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
The president, who had remained largely silent about the controversy over the last few days, praised his son for a television appearance on Fox News in which he said the meeting had been “a nothing.”
“My son Donald did a good job last night,” he wrote on Twitter. “He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!”
He also endorsed a comment by a Fox News commentator who said: “I believe Don junior is the victim here.” The president also suggested Democrats had “wilfully used Moscow disinformation” to influence the election against him.
It marked an aggressive change of strategy by President Trump as the White House sought to protect his son from allegations by Democrats that he may have broken election campaign laws by dealing with a U.S. adversary.
Jay Sekulow, the president’s lawyer, said, “The meeting that took place is not illegal.
The president was not at the meeting, was not aware of the meeting, did not participate in the meeting.”
The meeting took place on June 9, 2016, with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who has denied links to the Kremlin. It was brokered by Rob Goldstone, a Britishborn music publicist, who suggested there would be “incriminating” and “ultra sensitive” information about Clinton on offer.
Trump Jr. told Fox News the meeting “really went nowhere” and he never told his father about it because there was “nothing to tell.” He added: “In retrospect I probably would have done things a little differently.”
Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, was at the meeting but left early, and Paul Manafort, then Trump’s campaign manager, was also there. Democrats in Congress said the emails showed clear collusion with the Russian government. But senior Republicans sought to avoid condemning Trump Jr.
Paul Ryan, the Republican House Speaker, deflected questions about the controversy.
Reports from inside the White House suggested Trump had been watching television news and venting his fury about the continuing Russia investigation. Many staff members were said not to want to know anything at all about the saga because they could not afford the expense of hiring lawyers to defend themselves if they became involved.
Following the reports from inside the White House, Trump himself said: “The White House is functioning perfectly. I have very little time for watching TV.”
Meanwhile, Christopher Wray, Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, told a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing he did not consider investigations into Russian interference to be a “witch hunt.”
In Moscow, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, denied Kremlin involvement in the meeting with Trump Jr.
In an interview taped Wednesday with Christian broadcast station CBN, the president said Vladimir Putin would have preferred to have had Clinton in the White House.
Clinton would have weakened the U.S. military and driven up energy prices — two things Putin would have welcomed.
Trump also said in his first interview following a lengthy face-to-face meeting with Putin that he thinks the two “get along very, very well.” But he said Putin would always want “what’s good for Russia, and I want what’s good for the United States.”
Meanwhile, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are questioning the Trump administration’s decision to settle a money laundering case with a Russian real estate firm in light of revelations that the company was represented by Veselnitskaya. The letter sent by House Judiciary ranking member John Conyers and other Democrats asks whether Veselnitskaya was involved in settlement negotiations between Russian real estate firm Prevezon Holdings Ltd. and the Justice Department.