Trump Jr’s Russia talks ‘about Hillary’s fitness to take office’

DONALD TRUMP’S eldest son told Senate investigators yesterday that he had set up a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer because she might have had damaging information about Hillary Clinton, The New York Times reported.

Donald Trump Jr, in a prepared statement to Senate Judiciary Committee investigators, said it was important to learn about Mrs Clinton’s “fitness” to be president, the paper said.

“But nothing came of the Trump Tower meeting, he said, and he was adamant that he never colluded with the Russian government’s campaign to disrupt last year’s presidential election,” the Times reported.

The younger Mr Trump has released emails that showed he welcomed the prospect of receiving damaging information in the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and others in Trump Tower.

Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law, and Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, were also at the meeting. Mr Trump Jr was questioned in a meeting behind closed doors by Judiciary Committee staff, including Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat senator, who described the atmosphere as “cordial”, and said the testimony made it clear there was more to discover.

♦ Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former strategist, promised to serve as the president’s “wing man” in an interview with CBS’S programme 60 Minutes.

A Roman Catholic who said he respects church leaders on doctrinal matters, Mr Bannon took aim at American bishops for criticising Mr Trump’s decision to wind down the so-called DACA programme that gives legal status to undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children.

♦ A US appeals court last night ruled against Mr Trump’s effort to enforce broadly a temporary travel and refugee ban on people from certain Muslim-majority countries that the president said was necessary for national security.