Daily Freeman (Kingston, NY)

A few more questions for Donald Jr.

- Ruth Marcus Columnist Ruth Marcus is syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group.

Fox News host Sean Hannity told Donald Trump Jr. Tuesday night that he had run out of questions about the president’s son and a Russian government effort to help his father win the election. “I wanted to ask every question I could think of regarding this issue,” Hannity confided. “I can’t think of any more in all honesty.” I can. Mr. Trump, you received an email that explicitly described a Russian government effort to help elect your father? Do you consider Russia to be an adversary of the United States? If not, why not? If so, why did that not set off alarm bells? You say, “People are trying to reach out to you all the time with this”? Are any of these people from foreign government­s? In retrospect, do you believe this meeting to have been appropriat­e or not?

Mr. Trump, you said, you received the email “pre-Russia mania . ... I don’t even think my sirens went up.” But the email described the informatio­n as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Is that effort something about which you had previous knowledge?

Just to be clear, did the email trail you shared with your brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, and your father’s then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, include the reference to the Russian government’s effort to help the Trump campaign? Were they aware of the identity of the Russian lawyer and her alleged government connection, before, during or after the meeting? Please describe any in-person, email or other discussion­s you had with them, before or after the meeting, about the meeting or any other Russian involvemen­t with the campaign.

Please describe the conversati­on at the meeting in more detail. What incriminat­ing informatio­n did the lawyer suggest there might be about Hillary Clinton or the Democrats? Did she ask that your father, if he became president, lift sanctions on Russia?

Mr. Trump, asked by Hannity whether you met with other Russians during the course of the campaign, you left the door pretty wide open: “I’ve probably met with other people from Russia, certainly not in the context of an actual, a formalized meeting or anything like that.” What other meetings with Russians, whether formal or incidental encounters, do you recall during the course of the campaign? Speaking of recalling, as you said, the meeting took place before the story about Russian involvemen­t with the campaign exploded. After those reports came out, did you mention this encounter to anyone from the campaign? Did you not think it might be relevant?

Indeed, in a July 2016 interview with CNN, you called suggestion­s that Russians were behind the hacking of DNC emails “disgusting” and “phony,” adding, “I can’t think of bigger lies, but that exactly goes to show you what the DNC and what the Clinton camp will do. They will lie and do anything to win.” Had you forgotten about the meeting you attended a month earlier? If not, what is your explanatio­n?

Similarly, in an interview with The New York Times in March, you said, “None that were set up. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representi­ng the campaign in any way, shape or form.’’ Asked whether you had ever discussed government policies related to Russia, you said, “A hundred percent no.’’

Given the fact of this meeting and that it was attended by two other campaign officials, how do you justify that statement?

Mr. Trump, you said that you released the emails because “I wanted to get it all out there” and you accused critics of “trying to drag out the story . ... They want to drip a little bit today, drip a little bit then.”

But you have provided shifting accounts of the meeting, first describing it as being “primarily” about the adoption program. Only when confronted did you acknowledg­e that it concerned possible dirt on Hillary Clinton. You released the emails only after being informed that The New York Times was about to do so.

Who, exactly, is trying to drag out the story? Does this constitute transparen­cy, in your view?

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