Trump’s son met Kremlin-linked lawyer in run up to US election
Trump Jnr’s 2016 meeting puts more pressure on President over campaign’s connections with Russia
DONALD TRUMP’S son was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before he met a Kremlin-connected lawyer during last year’s presidential election campaign, according to The New York Times.
The June 2016 meeting, described by five sources, offers the first suggestion that members of Mr Trump’s campaign were prepared to accept Russian help, a question that has sparked a string of investigations.
It heaps further pressure on the President who yesterday said he wanted a new era of cooperation with Russia and announced joint plans with the Kremlin for a cyber security unit to guard against election meddling.
Lawyers for the president last night said Mr Trump had been unaware of the meeting at Trump Tower in New York and did not attend. In a statement, Donald Trump Jnr said the meeting was arranged by an acquaintance.
“After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs Clinton,” he said, before adding that the contact offered no details and quickly turned the conversation to a ban on Americans adopting Russian babies.
The result is that the president is back on the defensive despite claiming a measure of victory from his trip to Europe. Yesterday morning he took to Twitter to say he “strongly pressed” the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on allegations of Kremlin meddling in the US election, but that it was now “time to move forward in working constructively with Russia”.
“Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable cyber security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded…and safe,” he wrote.
His announcement provoked immediate disbelief from critics that he could consider working with the country accused of orchestrating last year’s cyber attacks in an effort to swing the outcome of the presidential vote.
Ash Carter, a former defence secretary, said it harked straight back to the days of the old Soviet Union.
“This is like the guy who robbed your house proposing a working group on burglary: it’s they who did this,” he told CNN
Marco Rubio, who lost the Republican presidential nomination to Mr Trump last year, said: “While reality and prag- matism require that we engage Vladimir Putin, he will never be a trusted ally or a reliable constructive partner. Partnering with Putin on a ‘Cyber Security Unit’ is akin to partnering with [Bashar al-] Assad on a ‘Chemical Weapons Unit’.”
Mr Trump’s visit to Europe garnered mixed reviews at home. While his speech in Warsaw was praised for setting out a clear defence of Western values, others said the G20 summit showed how America was becoming isolated on trade and climate change.
However, Mr Trump delivered his verdict in bombastic style after returning home from Hamburg where he met the G20 leaders – using Twitter to declare victory.
“The G20 summit was a great success for the US. Explained that the US must fix the many bad trade deals it has made,” he wrote.