Tag: Donald Trump Jr.

Even in the take-no-prisoners world of opposition research, Trump Jr.’s meeting was highly unusual

The following article by David A. Fahrenthold was posted on the Washington Post website July 11, 2017:

Donald Trump Jr. has defended his meeting with a Russian lawyer and said he did nothing wrong. (Richard Drew/AP)

Donald Trump Jr. said Tuesday that he agreed to a meeting with a Russian lawyer during last year’s campaign because he believed that the individual had information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

“I thought [the information] was Political Opposition Research,” Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter, in a statement explaining why he’d agreed to meet the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

At the same time, Trump Jr. released emails showing that he was told Veselnitskaya was a “Russian government attorney” whose information about Clinton was part of “Russia and its government’s support” for his father. Continue reading “Even in the take-no-prisoners world of opposition research, Trump Jr.’s meeting was highly unusual”

A revelation unlike any other in the Russia investigation

The following article by Dan Balz was posted on the Washington Post website July 11, 2017:

There have been other moments in the lengthy investigation of Russian government interference in the 2016 presidential election that have registered on the legal and political Richter scales, but none with the power and explosiveness of the email chain involving Donald Trump Jr. that became public Tuesday.

The emails between President Trump’s oldest son and an intermediary for the Russians provide the clearest indication to date that Trump campaign officials and family members were at least prepared to do business with a foreign adversary in the mutual goal of taking down Hillary Clinton. Continue reading “A revelation unlike any other in the Russia investigation”

‘Category 5 hurricane’: White House under siege by Trump Jr.’s Russia revelations

The following article by Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker was posted on the Washington Post site July 11, 2017:

The White House has been thrust into chaos after days of ever-worsening revelations about a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a lawyer characterized as representing the Russian government, as the president fumes against his enemies and senior aides circle each other with suspicion, according to top White House officials and outside advisers.

President Trump — who has been hidden from public view since returning last weekend from a divisive international summit — is enraged that the Russia cloud still hangs over his presidency and is exasperated that his eldest son and namesake has become engulfed by it, said people who have spoken with him this week. Continue reading “‘Category 5 hurricane’: White House under siege by Trump Jr.’s Russia revelations”

Donald Trump Jr. was told campaign meeting would be with ‘Russian government attorney,’ according to emails

The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman and John Wagner was posted on the Washington Post website July 11, 2017:

Donald Trump Jr. agreed to take a meeting during the 2016 presidential campaign with a woman he was told was a “Russian government attorney” who could provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of “Russia and its government’s support” for his father’s presidential campaign, according to emails tweeted by the president’s son on Tuesday.

President Trump’s eldest son early Tuesday posted on Twitter what he said was the entire exchange that led to the meeting amid a swirl of controversy about the June 2016 encounter. Continue reading “Donald Trump Jr. was told campaign meeting would be with ‘Russian government attorney,’ according to emails”

Russian lawyer who met with Trump Jr. has long history fighting sanctions

The following article by Michael Kranish, Tom Hamburger, David Filipov and Rosalind S. Helderman was posted on the Washington Post website July 11, 2017:

A House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on “U.S. Policy Toward Putin’s Russia,” on June 14, 2016. Former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, center right, testified as Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, center left, sat behind him. (House Foreign Affairs Committee)

The photograph is striking: There sits Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. and others at Trump Tower in Manhattan on June 9, 2016, seated a few days later in the front row of a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing at which witnesses discussed U.S. sanctions against her country.

The day before, Veselnitskaya was at Washington’s Newseum, attending the screening of a film that criticized U.S. sanctions.

In the course of a week — from New York to Washington — Veselnitskaya showed up at several events that go to the heart of the investigation of questions about whether Russia colluded with the Trump campaign to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Continue reading “Russian lawyer who met with Trump Jr. has long history fighting sanctions”

Trump Jr. Was Told in Email of Russian Effort to Aid Campaign

The following article by Matt Apuzzo, Jo Becker, Adam Goldman and Maggie Haberman was posted on the New York Times website July 10, 2017:

The Times now has the email to Donald Trump Jr. offering Russian aid to “incriminate Hillary.” His reply: “If it’s what you say I love it.” Read the new article.

Donald Trump Jr. spoke at a rally in May in Bozeman, Mont. Credit William Campbell/Corbis, via Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email.

The email to the younger Mr. Trump was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting. In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, but gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy. Continue reading “Trump Jr. Was Told in Email of Russian Effort to Aid Campaign”

Email to Donald Trump Jr. could be a smoking gun, as Russia connections deepen

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve was posted on the Washington Post website July 11, 2017:

THE BIG IDEA: There is a paper trail.

Last night, the New York Times reported: “Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email. The email to the younger Mr. Trump was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting. In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, but gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy. Mr. Goldstone’s message, as described to The New York Times by the three people, indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information.” Continue reading “Email to Donald Trump Jr. could be a smoking gun, as Russia connections deepen”

Trump Team Met With Lawyer Linked to Kremlin During Campaign

The following article by J Becker, Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman was posted on the New York Times website July 8, 2017:

Credit:  Kathy Willens/AP

Two weeks after Donald J. Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination last year, his eldest son arranged a meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan with a Russian lawyer who has connections to the Kremlin, according to confidential government records described to The New York Times.

The previously unreported meeting was also attended by Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman at the time, Paul J. Manafort, as well as the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to interviews and the documents, which were outlined by people familiar with them.

While President Trump has been dogged by revelations of undisclosed meetings between his associates and Russians, this episode at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, is the first confirmed private meeting between a Russian national and members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle during the campaign. It is also the first time that his son Donald Trump Jr. is known to have been involved in such a meeting. Continue reading “Trump Team Met With Lawyer Linked to Kremlin During Campaign”

Trump’s Son Met With Russian Lawyer After Being Promised Damaging Information on Clinton

The following article by Jo Becker, Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman was posted on the New York Times website July 9, 2017:

Credit: (Rick Wilking/Reuters

President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, according to three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.

The meeting was also attended by his campaign chairman at the time, Paul J. Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kushner only recently disclosed the meeting, though not its content, in confidential government documents described to The New York Times.

The Times reported the existence of the meeting on Saturday. But in subsequent interviews, the advisers and others revealed the motivation behind it. Continue reading “Trump’s Son Met With Russian Lawyer After Being Promised Damaging Information on Clinton”

Trump’s son seems to confirm Comey’s account of the president’s comments on the Flynn investigation

The following article by Jenna Johnson was posted on the Washington Post website June 11, 2017:

Donald Trump Jr., executive vice president of the Trump Organization, announces that the company is launching a new hotel chain June 5 in New York. (Kathy Willens/AP)

Soon after former FBI director James B. Comey testified that President Trump told him that he “hoped” the FBI would drop its investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the president’s personal lawyer flatly denied that accusation and said Trump “never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone.”

But Donald Trump Jr. — the president’s eldest son — seemed to confirm Comey’s version of events in a Saturday interview on Fox News as he tried to emphasize the fact that his father did not directly order Comey to stop investigating Flynn. Continue reading “Trump’s son seems to confirm Comey’s account of the president’s comments on the Flynn investigation”