Washington: President Donald Trump’s eldest son is appearing to acknowledge that he took a meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign to hear information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter said the meeting “went nowhere but had to listen.” He also downplayed the Trump Tower meeting, noting in a tongue-in-cheek fashion that it's common for members of campaigns to seek damaging information about opposing candidates.
Mr Trump Jr.’s tweet is the latest shift in his explanation of the meeting first reported by The New York Times. He had initially said the meeting focused on a disbanded Russian adoption programme. A day later, he acknowledged he took the meeting because he was told the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, might have information “helpful” to the Trump campaign.
“After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms Clinton,” Mr Trump Jr. said in a statement to the Times. “Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”
The President’s son said he gathered that the adoption issue was “the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting.”
This is the most direct suggestion so far of a possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and the first indication that someone from President Trump’s inner circle met with Russians during the campaign, The Washington Post said.
The meeting was also attended by the then Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Mr Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is now a senior White House adviser. In his statement, Mr Trump Jr. said he had asked Mr Manafort and Mr Kushner to attend, but did not tell them what the meeting was about.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for the President’s lawyer, said that “the President was not aware of and did not attend the meeting,” according to the Times.
Russia has been accused of hacking and influencing last year’s election in Mr Trump’s favour. On Sunday, two days after his first meeting as president with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr Trump tweeted: “I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. I’ve already given my opinion......”
