Moscow Mule
Don Jr.’s shady Russian meet was a disgrace
HE said, “I love it.”
Yes, upon being informed in June 2016 he might soon be in receipt of information from the Russian government damaging to Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. responded with the words, “I love it.”
He didn’t call the FBI to say he had evidence the Russian government was seeking to interfere with the presidential election of 2016. No, he said, “I love it” — and set up a meeting with the shady Russian lawyer who, he was told, might share dirt with him.
He didn’t steer the Trump campaign away to shield it from the stain of a potentially scandalous encounter with an operative working for Vladimir Putin. No, Trump Jr. brought the campaign’s chairman, Paul Manafort, and his brother-inlaw, Jared Kushner, into the meeting. Donald Jr. loved it so, you see. Now, the fact that Donald Jr. “loved” the idea of getting the goods on Hillary Clinton from a foreign antagonist doesn’t suggest anything criminal in itself.
According to the three people who set up the meeting — 1) Trump Jr., 2) a bizarre British publicist named Rob Goldstone and 3) a shady Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselvitskaya — the proceedings ended up centering on Russia’s adoption policy.
So unless they’re dissembling — and they could be — no actual collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government took place at the meeting. If they’re not prevaricating, this isn’t the smoking gun that will take down the Trump presidency.
To be sure, Donald Jr. lied outright when The New York Times contacted him about the meeting, which is not good, because lying is bad unless someone asks you whether they look fat in those pants and they do.
But as it happens, lying to The New York Times is not a crime.
At the moment, the only person who might be in some legal jeopardy as a result of the meeting is Kushner, who did not mention the meeting on the form he filled out to secure a security clearance (called an SF-86). The form specifically states that “knowingly falsifying or concealing a material fact is a felony which may result in fines and/or up to five (5) years imprisonment.”
But enough about legal jeopardy. There is too much focus on the criminal aspect of this event, which might or might not be significant. There is not enough focus on the moral aspect of this event, which is far more significant.
Donald Trump Jr.’s conduct defines the word “disgraceful.” He may not have colluded in the disruption of an American election, but the evidence of the emails he released himself indicates he was only too willing and eager to do so.
Now, politicians have had ne’er-do-well relatives throughout all history who have sought to use their kinship to their own advantage. Donald Jr. was up to something else here. He was actively seeking to aid his father’s attempt to secure the presidency of the United States.
If we knew he had been or is in bad odor with his father, or that his father has kept his distance from his son due to the kid’s poor judgment or bad behavior, that would help exculpate the president.
But we know Trump Sr. has knitted his children into every aspect of his professional life. In other words: The president whose daughter took his seat at the G-20 conference and who wants his son-in-law to negotiate a Middle East peace is the same man whose son took a meeting with someone he had been led to believe was a Putin cut-out to procure information that would destroy Hillary Clinton.
I’m sure there are people who will defend this, because there are people who will defend anything.