Earliest meeting between US President’s key aides and Russian revealed to be in 2016

Donald Trump Jr was asked to attend by an acquaintance. DONALD TRUMP’S eldest son, son-in-law and campaign chairman met a Russian lawyer shortly after the tycoon won the Republican presidential nomination.

It appears to be the earliest known private meeting between key aides to the president and a Russian.

Representatives of Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner confirmed the June 2016 meeting after the New York Times reported on Saturday on the gathering of the men and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower.

Then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended, according to a statement from Donald Trump Jr. He described it as a “short introductory meeting” during which the three discussed a disbanded programme that used to allow US citizens to adopt Russian children. Moscow ended the adoptions in response to American sanctions brought after the 2009 death of an imprisoned lawyer who spoke about a corruption scandal.

Mr Trump Jr said he invited the other two Americans; was asked to attend by an acquaintance not named in the statement, and was not told beforehand who he would meet.

“It was not a campaign issue at that time and there was no follow-up,” he said.

Mr Kushner’s lawyer Jamie Gorelick said her client disclosed the meeting in a revised filing of a form that requires him to list contacts with foreign agents.

She said: “Mr Kushner has submitted additional updates and included, out of an abundance of caution, this meeting with a Russian person, which he briefly attended at the request of his brother-in-law, Donald Trump Jr. As Mr Kushner has consistently stated, he is eager to co-operate and share what he knows.”

Later, a spokesman for the president’s outside legal team said participants in the June meeting “misrepresented who they were and who they worked for”. However, the spokesman, Mark Corallo, would not say specifically who misrepresented themselves or how.

Unlike Mr Kushner, Mr Trump Jr is not in the administration and is not required to disclose foreign contacts.