Trump’s son now in Russian mire
UNITED STATES: Donald Trump Jr was told in an email before meeting a Russian lawyer who he thought had material damaging to Hillary Clinton that it was part of a Russian government bid to aid his father’s presidential campaign, the New York Times has reported.
Citing three people with knowledge of the email, the paper yesterday said publicist Rob Goldstone indicated in the message to US President Donald Trump’s eldest son that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information about Clinton, the Democrat presidential candidate who lost to Trump.
Trump Jr did not indicate in a statement on Monday that he had been told the lawyer might be a proxy for the Kremlin.
The email is likely to be of interest to investigators examining whether any Trump associates colluded with the Russian government to sway last year’s election, the newspaper said.
Trump Jr hired a lawyer yesterday to represent him in the Russiarelated investigations as prominent Republicans voiced concern about the meeting between the president’s son and a Russian.
Allegations of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia have cast a shadow over the Republican president’s first months in office and sparked investigations by congressional committees and a federal special counsel, Robert Mueller, into whether Russia interfered in the election and colluded with the Trump campaign.
Moscow denies interfering and Trump says there was no collusion.
‘‘It’s a very serious development,’’ Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said of the newspaper report. ‘‘It all warrants thorough investigation. Everyone who was in that meeting ought to come before our committee.’’
‘‘I look forward to assisting Donald Jr and, quite frankly, there is nothing to all of the media buzz about the June 9th, 2016 meeting,’’ lawyer Alan Futerfas said. ‘‘That will be proven to be the case.’’
Trump Jr has said he agreed to meet Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, described by the New York Times as having links to the Kremlin, after being promised damaging Clinton.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Trump’s thencampaign chairman, Paul Manafort, also attended, the newspaper said. It called the encounter the first confirmed private meeting of members of Donald Trump’s inner circle with a Russian national during the campaign.
A Republican member of the Senate intelligence committee, Susan Collins, called on Trump Jr to testify before the panel, which is looking into accusations of Russian meddling in the election.
‘‘Our intelligence committee needs to interview him and others who attended the meeting,’’ she said.
Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the intelligence information about panel, said it ‘‘absolutely’’ wanted to speak to Trump Jr about the meeting.
Warner said he and the Republican committee chairman, Richard Burr, would decide later whether to ask Trump Jr to testify in public or in a classified setting.
Burr would not say if the committee would talk to Trump Jr., but he said the panel would look into the purpose of the meeting, who set it up and how the process unfolded before making a decision on who to interview.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said there was nothing inappropriate about the meeting with lawyer Veselnitskaya. ‘‘Don Junior took a very short meeting from which there was absolutely no follow-up,’’ Sanders told reporters. – Reuters