Trump defends son’s meeting

President says it’s standard practice to gather research

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday defended his son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer, characterizing it as standard campaign practice and maintaining that “nothing happened” as a result of the June sit-down.

“I think from a practical standpoint most people would’ve taken that meeting. It’s called opposition research, or even research into your opponent,” Trump said.

Donald Trump Jr. released emails this week from 2016 in which he appeared eager to accept information from the Russian government that could have damaged Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The emails were sent ahead of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer that Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Trump’s son-inlaw, Jared Kushner, also attended.

Asked about the meeting Thursday, Trump said “politics is not the nicest business in the world” and that it’s standard for candidates to welcome negative information about an opponent. In this case, he added, “nothing happened from the meeting, zero happened from the meeting.”

Meanwhile, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said he would call on Trump Jr. to testify as part of an investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election and would subpoena him if necessary.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-iowa, said he wants Trump Jr. to testify “pretty soon,” and it could be as early as next week. The panel’s top Democrat, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, had also called on Trump Jr. to testify.

The June 9 meeting involved a lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. Trump, suggested Thursday “she was here” because of former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

An assistant United States attorney in a January court hearing said the federal government had bypassed the normal visa process and granted a “type of extraordinary permission” so that her client could be in the U.S. to be deposed in a Justice Department lawsuit involving a Russian investment firm.

In a statement, Lynch said she had no knowledge of Veselnitskaya’s travel.