Trump Jr’s ‘ love’ for Russian dirt

> Emails about bid to get compromising info on Clinton jolts Washington

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s eldest son released emails on Tuesday showing he embraced Russian efforts to support his father’s presidential campaign, a shocking disclosure that jolted Washington and is likely to further fuel speculation over Moscow’s suspected role in the election.

The revelation puts the president’s son at the centre of a burgeoning scandal involving multiple US investigations into whether Trump associates colluded with Moscow in its efforts to tilt the 2016 election in the Republican’s favour.

In the emails released on Tuesday, Rob Goldstone – a publicist close to the Trumps – tells Donald Trump Jr ( pix) that he has learned of a Russian offer of compromising material on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton from a pop singer he represented, Emin Agalarov.

“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,” Goldstone wrote in a June 3, 2016 email.

“This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump – helped along by Aras and Emin.”

In response, the 39-year-old son wrote back saying: “If it’s what you say, I love it.”

He then set up a meeting with “Russian government attorney” Natalia Veselnitskaya, the emails show.

Trump Jr told Fox News on Tuesday he did not tell his father about the meeting after it failed to yield compromising information on Clinton.

“It was such a nothing. There was nothing to tell,” he said, while appearing to acknowledge the misstep.

“In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently,” he said.

“For me this was opposition research, they had something, you know, maybe concrete evidence to all the stories I’d been hearing.”

In an interview with NBC News, Veselnitskaya said: “It’s possible that maybe they were looking for such information” about the Clinton campaign. “They wanted it so badly.” Trump jumped to his son’s defence, saying in a statement: “My son is a highquality person and I applaud his transparency.” – AFP