Trump: Son ‘innocent’ of wrongdoing
WASHINGTON — After initially holding back, President Donald Trump jumped to the defense of his son Wednesday morning, denouncing reports about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer to gain incriminating information about Hillary Clinton as part of “the greatest witch hunt in political history.”
The president fired off posts on Twitter insisting his son was “innocent” of wrongdoing and embracing the theory he may even have been “the victim” in the case. He assailed the use of anonymous sources in the reports, although in this instance the story was confirmed by emails released by Donald Trump Jr.
“My son Donald did a good job last night,” Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to his son’s appearance Tuesday on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News. “He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!”
In another message, Trump added, “Remember, when you hear the words “sources say” from the Fake Media, often times those sources are made up and do not exist.” And he retweeted a Fox News Twitter message quoting one of the network’s commentators saying, “I believe Don Jr. is the victim here.” And in another post, he quoted The Washington Times as saying “Democrats have willfully used Moscow disinformation to influence the presidential election against Donald Trump.”
The Russian government weighed in Wednesday as well, essentially mirroring the president’s argument that the U.S. news media was fueling a fake scandal. “You know, it was with amazement that I learned that a Russian lawyer is being accused of communicating with Trump within Trump’s jurisdiction,” Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister, told reporters in Brussels at a news conference with his Belgian counterpart. “Basically, to me it looks like barbarism, because when someone is talking to a lawyer — what kind of a problem, what threat could this constitute for anyone?”
Lavrov added: “It’s amazing how serious people are making a mountain out of a molehill, even though there may be no molehill in the first place.”
Trump’s messages Wednesday morning and late Tuesday represented a shift in strategy. He said nothing publicly about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with the Russian lawyer for days after it was first reported in The New York Times, and after the emails were released Tuesday he issued only a tepid one-sentence statement through his White House spokeswoman calling his son a “high-quality person.”
Advisers had urged him to avoid publicly commenting on the reports, but evidently he changed course as he watched coverage on cable television.
Donald Trump Jr. released the emails after learning The Times had them and was about to publish them. They show he was approached by an intermediary in June 2016 as his father was wrapping up the Republican presidential nomination about meeting with a woman described as a Russian government lawyer who had information that would “incriminate Hillary.”
The damaging information was “part of Russia and its government support for Mr. Trump,” the email to Donald Trump Jr. said. He responded, “If it’s what you say I love it.”