Russia talk follows Trump to Paris
In Paris, president says ‘most people would’ve taken that meeting ’
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes President Trump before their meeting Thursday at the Elysée Palace in Paris. In a joint news conference with Macron, Trump defended his son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer who he believed had political dirt on the senior Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton, in the presidential election. Trump called his son’s meeting “opposition research” and said, “Politics is not the nicest business in the world.”
President Trump on Thursday defended his son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer whom he believed had political dirt on Hillary Clinton — calling it a normal practice during a U.S. presidential campaign.
“It’s called opposition research, or even research into your opponent,” Trump said at a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. “Politics is not the nicest business in the world, but it’s very standard where they have information and you take the information.”
This week, Donald Trump Jr. revealed email correspondence showing he was told the potentially incriminating information about Clinton would be coming from the Russian government, before he arranged the June 2016 meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower.
As some lawmakers and legal experts questioned whether his namesake broke campaign finance laws or improperly colluded with Russia, President Trump stressed that the lawyer his son met with was not a formal Russian government official.
He also insisted that it was a “short meeting” and the lawyer did not provide any information on Clinton.
“Zero happened from the meeting,” Trump said.
Insisting that “from a practical standpoint most people would’ve taken that meeting,” President Trump also called his son “a wonderful young man” and “a fine person.”
Like his father, the younger Trump said this week that he thought the meeting was part of standard opposition research, and that he did not realize the potential ramifications of meeting with a foreign national on the subject. The meeting also included former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump Jr. said the lawyer did not have information on Clinton but only wanted to talk about U.S. sanctions on Russia.
Still, some lawmakers have said that, even if Trump Jr. did not receive damaging information on Clinton, his apparent eagerness to take the meeting after being told the source of the information was from Russia could spell trouble.
Multiple congressional committees and a special counsel are investigating whether there was any collusion between Trump associates and Russians who tried to influence the election in favor of Trump by hacking Democrats close to Clinton and leaking stolen information.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday he would send Trump Jr. a letter asking him to testify about the incident as soon as possible.
Campaign and ethics experts have also disputed the Trumps’ claims that the meeting constituted normal opposition research.
“I don’t know many people who would have done this,” Larry Noble, a former top Federal Election Commission lawyer who is at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, told USA TODAY on Wednesday. “Most people have this sense that American elections should not be influenced by foreign interests.”
“It’s called spying, not opposition research,” Richard Painter, President George W. Bush’s former ethics lawyer and a critic of President Trump’s activities, said about any information gleaned from Russian sources during the 2016 campaign.
The younger Trump has faced questions about if his meeting violated federal campaign laws.
It’s illegal to solicit or accept a contribution from a foreign entity, and opposition research could be considered an in-kind contribution.