Trump ‘knew’ of 2016 meeting with Russians
Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney says the US President knew in advance of a June 2016 meeting in which Russians promised to share dirt on then- election rival Hillary Clinton, US media reported on Thursday ( Friday in Manila).
Trump’s son- in- law Jared Kushner, son Donald Jr., and top campaign official Paul Manafort met at New York’s Trump Tower on June 9, 2016 with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who had said she was offering information from the Russian government aimed at helping Trump win the presidency.
Trump, his son, his lawyers
- cials have repeatedly said Trump did not know about the now infamous meeting until news of it broke in July 2017.
“No, I didn’t know anything about the meeting,” Trump told
that month. But according to CNN and NBC, Trump’s former lawyer and
- der investigation and has fallen out with the president, claims he was present when Donald Jr. told his father about the Russians’ offer to meet, and that Trump approved of it. 31 people—including 12 Russian intelligence agents—for hacking computer networks of the Democratic Party.
Cohen’s reported claim comes days after the bombshell release of a taped conversation between him and Trump by CNN Tu e s d ay — w i t h reports suggesting there may be more tapes.
On that recording, released by Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis, Trump can be heard discussing with Cohen arrangements for payment of hush money to Playboy model Karen McDougal, who says she had an affair with Trump in 2006. McDougal had sold the rights to her story to the parent company of the National Enquirer for $ 150,000. The Trump-Cohen discussion was essentially about reimbursing that company, run by David Pecker, a friend of Trump, to acquire the rights.
During Trump’s presidential campaign, his team denied any knowledge of the deal between McDougal and American Media, the parent company.