President admits son sought Clinton information when he met Russian
DONALD TRUMP yesterday admitted that his son met a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower in 2016 to collect information on Hillary Clinton but said it was “totally legal”.
The Sunday morning tweet was Mr Trump’s most direct acknowledgement that the motive for the June 2016 meeting was to get dirt on Mrs Clinton, his Democratic rival for the presidency.
It follows US news reports that the president was becoming concerned that Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the election was closing in on family members – particularly Donald Trump Jr.
As he has in the past, Mr Trump insisted he did not know at the time about the meeting between his son Donald Jr and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer with links to the Kremlin.
“This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere,” he wrote. “I did not know about it!”
The meeting has come under intense scrutiny from Mr Mueller, the special counsel, as he probes whether the Trump campaign coordinated with a Russian effort to sway the election in his favour.
The Washington Post reported that Mr Trump had been brooding in private about whether his son unintentionally put himself in legal jeopardy by meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya. Mr Trump called the report “a complete fabrication”.
Donald Jr initially said in July 2017 that the meeting was “primarily” about American adoptions of Russian children. The Post reported that the statement was dictated by the president.
Donald Jr later admitted he accepted the meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya in hopes of obtaining damaging information on Mrs Clinton, but said nothing came of it. Mr Trump’s lawyers say the meeting violated no laws.