Trump Jr changes his account of meeting Russian lawyer during campaign

Donald Trump Jr had not mentioned Mrs Clinton. DONALD Trump’s eldest son changed his account over the weekend of a meeting he had with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, saying on Sunday that the woman told him she had information about Hillary Clinton.

A statement from Donald Trump Jr one day earlier made no mention of Mrs Clinton. In his initial depiction of the meeting last June, the US President’s son said the discussion focused on a disbanded programme that used to allow American adoptions of Russian children.

It appeared that Mr Trump Jr shifted his account of the meeting after being presented with additional information from The New York Times, which first reported both the discussion and the prospect of negative information about Mrs Clinton. The Kremlin, meanwhile, is disavowing knowledge of the Russian lawyer, or any meeting between Trump senior staff and the woman.

The meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya is the earliest known private meeting between key aides to the president and a Russian.

Federal and congressional investigators are probing whether Mr Trump’s campaign co-ordinated with Russia to meddle in the presidential election, investigations the president has called a “hoax”.

Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law and White House senior adviser, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya.

Meanwhile, the US President has dropped his plan to work with Russia to create “an impenetrable cyber security unit’ soon after discussing the idea with Vladimir Putin.

The U-turn came after the two presidents had their first face-to-face meeting in Germany, and the two sides announced they had brokered a ceasefire in southern Syria that went into effect on Sunday.

After the meeting, Mr Trump tweeted: “Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded ... and safe.”

However, the idea drew widespread ridicule and Mr Trump later tweeted: “The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen. It can’t – but a ceasefire can, & did!”