Trump son admits meeting Russians to help campaign
UNITED STATES: Donald Trump’s son knowingly accepted assistance purportedly from the Russian government to help his father’s election campaign, emails he released on Tuesday revealed.
Donald Trump Jr was told last summer that Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer linked to the Kremlin, would provide him with information that could ‘‘incriminate Hillary [Clinton]’’, the Democratic presidential candidate, if he agreed to meet her at Trump Tower.
The information that Veselnitskaya was willing to offer was ‘‘part of Russia and its government’s support for Trump’’, said the email, sent by a publicist friend of Trump Jr who represents a Russian client.
The messages setting up the meeting on June 9 last year are the most significant documents to emerge in the investigation into claims of collusion between the Republican nominee’s associates and Russian officials.
The correspondence, which Trump Jr shared via Twitter after a New York Times report on the exchange, came as the Senate intelligence committee prepared to hear testimony from campaign staff for the first time.
Senior congressmen have now asked that Trump Jr be questioned. Jared Kushner, his brother-in-law and a senior White House adviser, and Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager, were also present at the meeting with Veselnitskaya.
President Trump issued a statement backing his son. ‘‘My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency,’’ he said.
The Trump Tower meeting was arranged by Rob Goldstone, a British publicist working on behalf of Emin Agalorov, a Russian pop star whose father, a developer, worked with the Trumps on the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Goldstone has previously denied knowing of Russian involvement in the election.
Yury Chaika, Russia’s pros- ecutor general and an ally of President Vladimir Putin, is referred to in the email correspondence with Goldstone. Chaika has met Agalarov’s father, the publicist writes, and offered to provide documents about Clinton.
One of Goldstone’s emails suggested that the information incriminating Clinton was ‘‘ultra sensitive’’. Agreeing to the meeting, Trump Jr wrote to Goldstone: ‘‘If it’s what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer.’’
Trump Jr said nothing came of the discussion when it became clear that Veselnitskaya did not have any information on Clinton, and that his father did not know of the meeting.
Mark Warner, the Democratic committee vice-chairman, said that the correspondence was ‘‘the first time that the public has seen clear evidence of senior-level members of the Trump campaign meeting with Russians to try to obtain information that might hurt the campaign of Hillary Clinton’’. Trump Jr must be questioned by the committee, Warner said. Senators also want to question Manafort and Kushner.
Before Tuesday’s disclosure of the correspondence, Trump Jr dismissed the outcry over the meeting as nonsense. ‘‘Media & Dems are extremely invested in the Russia story. If this nonsense meeting is all they have after a yr, I understand the desperation!’’ he tweeted.
Alan Futerfas, Trump Jr’s lawyer, said that the meeting was ‘‘much ado about nothing’’ and his client did nothing wrong. The lawyer said Trump Jr had taken the meeting after it was suggested to him that Veselnitskaya had ‘‘information concerning alleged wrongdoing by Democratic Party frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, in her dealings with Russia’’.
However, Richard Painter, a former ethics lawyer for the George W Bush White House, said that Trump Jr might have broken election laws that prohibit dealings with foreign citizens.
‘‘This was clearly a situation where any rational person who cares about national security would have called the FBI,’’ Painter said. Trump Jr may have violated campaign finance laws, computer crime statutes and made false statements, and if found to have done so could be jailed, he said.
Nick Akerman, the former Watergate prosecutor, described Trump Jr’s emails as ‘‘almost a smoking cannon’’.
‘‘There’s no question this is treason,’’ he said.
In an interview with Russian state television in November last year, Emin Agalarov praised the newly elected President Trump and said he had ‘‘a very pleasant family’’.
‘‘I saw [Donald Trump’s] sons, Eric and Don, many times and we’re constantly writing to each other,’’ Agalarov added. The Times