(WASHINGTON) — President 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 Sunday that the woman told him she had information about Democrat Hillary Clinton.

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

It appeared that 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 Clinton.

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 Trump's campaign coordinated with Russia to meddle in the presidential election, investigations the president has called a "hoax."

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

The Times, citing advisers to the White House who were briefed on the discussion, said Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting after being promised damaging information about Clinton.

In his statement Sunday, Trump Jr. said he was asked by an acquaintance he knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant to have a meeting with a person he was told might have information that would be "helpful" to the Trump campaign. He said he was not told the name of the person ahead of the meeting.

Trump Jr. said the attorney claimed during the discussion to have information that "individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee" and supporting Clinton.

"No details or supporting information was provided or even offered," Trump Jr. said. "It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information."

He said his father was unaware of the meeting.

On Saturday, Trump Jr. had described the same gathering as a "short introductory meeting" during which the three discussed a program that used to allow U.S. citizens to adopt Russian children. Russia ended the adoptions in response to American sanctions brought against the nation following the 2009 death of an imprisoned lawyer who spoke about a corruption scandal.

He said on Sunday that the attorney turned the conversation to the adoption of Russian children, and that he believed that this was the "true agenda" of the meeting and that claims about having information helpful to the Trump campaign had been a pretext for the encounter.

"I interrupted and advised her that my father was not an elected official, but rather a private citizen, and that her comments and concerns were better addressed if and when he held public office," Trump Jr. said in the statement.

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump's legal team, said only, "The president was not aware of and did not attend the meeting."

Unlike Kushner, Trump Jr. does not serve in the administration and is not required to disclose his foreign contacts. The newspaper said the meeting was disclosed in recent days to government investigators when Kushner filed a revised version of a form needed to obtain a security clearance. His attorney has previously acknowledged that Kushner's first security clearance submission was incomplete.

Manafort also recently disclosed the meeting to congressional investigators, the newspaper said.

The newspaper said Veselnitskaya is known for her attempts to undercut the sanctions against Russian human rights abusers. The Times also said her clients include state-owned businesses and the son of a senior government official whose company was under investigation in the United States at the time of the meeting.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's eldest son, son-in-law and former election campaign manager met with a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin soon after Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination last year, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

The meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan on June 9, 2016, was the first confirmed private meeting between members of the president's inner circle and a Russian national, the newspaper reported, citing confidential government records and interviews with people familiar with the documents.

Donald Trump Jr. confirmed the get-together in a statement, describing it as "a short introductory meeting" that focused mainly on the issue of child adoption. He said he also asked Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort to take part in the meeting. A lawyer for Kushner said Trump's son-in-law "briefly attended" the meeting.

A federal special counsel and several congressional committees are investigating possible contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian representatives, as part of a larger probe into allegations that Moscow meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

The Times article appeared a day after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the allegations of election meddling during the summit of leaders from the Group of 20 major economies in Hamburg, Germany.

Donald Trump Jr. said the meeting was held primarily to discuss a popular program to help Americans adopt Russian children, which the Russian government had ended.

"But it was not a campaign issue at that time and there was no follow up," he said in the statement. "I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand."

Kushner attorney Jamie Gorelick said Trump's son-in-law "briefly attended" the meeting, adding that Kushner had over 100 calls or meetings with representatives from more than 20 countries during the campaign and post-election transition.

"As Mr. Kushner has consistently stated, he is eager to cooperate and share what he knows," Gorelick said in a statement.

A spokesman for Manafort did not respond to a Reuters query.

The Times said the Russian lawyer at the meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya, is known for campaigning against a U.S. law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers. The law enraged Putin, who retaliated by halting American adoptions of Russian children, the newspaper reported.

The Times said the adoption issue is a frequently used talking point for opponents of the U.S. law.</s>WASHINGTON (WASHINGTON POST) - A report from the New York Times on Monday (July 10) evening indicated that Donald Trump Jr had been informed in an e-mail before a June 9 meeting of last year that the person with whom he was meeting could offer negative information about Hillary Clinton that came from the Russian government.

That, alone, is significant.

It has also been used as the jumping-off point for a number of broader theories of how the Trump campaign might have colluded with the Russian government.

For example: Did that meeting precipitate Mr Donald Trump's tweet about Mrs Hillary Clinton's deleted e-mails? Well, no, almost certainly not.

Below, a timeline of the events leading up to that meeting and some of the theories that are floating around it.

The Miss Universe pageant, at this point part of the Trump Organisation, is held in Moscow. The event's location was secured thanks to licensing fees of nearly US$20 million ($27.6 million) paid by a Moscow real estate development firm called the Crocus Group.

Its president is a man named Aras Agalarov. Shortly after the pageant, Trump tweets his enthusiasm about working with Agalarov on a real estate development.

Agalarov's son, Emin, is a vice-president of Crocus Group - and a pop singer.

Later that month, a new video is released by Emin Agalarov, starring Donald Trump.

Emin Agalarov's publicist in the United States is a man named Rob Goldstone.

Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server while she served as secretary of state is made public. Clinton reveals that she turned over work-related e-mails to the government for the purposes of maintaining records but that personal e-mails on the server were deleted.

Some 31,000 e-mails fell into that latter category, screened by a team of attorneys.

Hackers believed to be linked to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) gain access to the network of the Democratic National Committee.

John Podesta, chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, is e-mailed a link asking that he change his password. This is believed to be the way that hackers gained access to Podesta's e-mail account.

Hackers believed to be linked to Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) also gain access to the DNC network.

An Associated Press report indicates that Donald Trump has secured enough unpledged Republican delegates to assure that he will be nominated candidate for the presidency.

During a speech in San Jose a few days before the California primary, Trump again refers to the e-mails deleted from Hillary Clinton's private server.

"By the way, Hillary Clinton is missing 30,000 e-mails," he says. "They've been deleted. 30,000. 30,000."

Trump was discussing a New York Times story about his relationships with women. He noted that one of the women critical of him in that story had previously praised him over e-mail - which he still had in his possession.

Emin (Agalarov) just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.

The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.

This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and it's government's support for Mr Trump - helped along by Aras and Emin.

What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly?

I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.

Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer. Could we do a call first thing next week when I am back?

Let me know when you are free to talk with Emin by phone about this Hillary info - you had mentioned early this week so wanted to try to schedule a time and day Best to you and family

Trump Jr asks Goldstone over e-mail if he can speak with Agalarov at that moment. In a later e-mail, he asks Goldstone to have Agalarov call his cell phone.

Goldstone e-mails Trump Jr to tell him that Agalarov is on-stage at the moment but that he can have him call in 20 minutes.

Trump Jr thanks Goldstone for his help. It's not clear from this e-mail if the two spoke.

Emin asked that I schedule a meeting with you and The Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow for this Thursday.

I believe you are aware of the meeting - and so wondered if 3pm or later on Thursday works for you?

-It's still not clear, but this e-mail may suggest that Trump Jr and Agalarov spoke.

Trump Jr suggests a meeting at 3pm. This is later changed to 4pm.

Trump wins the primaries in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, giving him the delegates to officially clinch the Republican nomination.

During his victory speech that night, Trump promises more dirt on Clinton.

"I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons. I think you're going to find it very informative and very, very interesting," he says.

The following Monday was June 13.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican Party, enters Trump Tower. He's there as the Trump campaign launches its effort to fundraise for the general election.

Rob Goldstone checks in to Trump Tower on Facebook. "Preparing for meeting," he writes.

Goldstone checks in at Trump Tower again, though this time he accidentally selects Trump Tower Indonesia.

The meeting takes place, lasting about half an hour. In attendance are Trump Jr, Manafort, Kushner, Veselnitskaya and Goldstone.

According to Trump Jr, Veselnitskaya offered no useful information about the Clinton campaign.

"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," he said in a statement to the Times. When Veselnitskaya turned the subject to sanctions, Trump Jr says he told her that his "father was not an elected official, but rather a private citizen, and that her comments and concerns were better addressed if and when he held public office."

In an interview with NBC, Veselnitskaya said that Kushner only stayed for the first seven to 10 minutes and didn't return. She also said that Manafort was looking at his phone the whole time.

Trump responds to Hillary Clinton's insult by mentioning the deleted emails.

Omar Mateen murders 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

Trump gives a speech in New Hampshire focused on national security. Later in the month, he again promises a speech targeting Clinton directly.

A person calling himself "Guccifer 2.0" releases a DNC opposition file on Trump, stolen from the Democratic party's network. It's the first of a flood of leaks that would come over the next few months.

The FBI begins a counterintelligence operation focused on Russia's attempts to meddle in the 2016 election.</s>WASHINGTON — The widening investigations into Russia's election meddling are drawing in more of President Trump's family members, as congressional leaders on Monday vowed to question the president's son about his meeting last summer with a Kremlin-linked attorney who claimed to have damaging information on Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Monday his panel "absolutely'' wants to speak with Donald Trump Jr., about his June 2016 meeting with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

"This was the first time the public has seen direct evidence that Trump campaign officials reached out... to agents of a foreign government to try to get damaging information on Hillary Clinton,'' said Warner, whose panel is investigating possible collusion between Trump associates and Russia.

The U.S. intelligence community has accused Moscow of hacking Democrats and releasing stolen material to websites such as WikiLeaks to influence the presidential election in favor of Trump. "Rest assured that Donald Trump Jr. will be somebody we want to talk to,'' Warner said, describing the meeting as "very troubling."

As he learned of the lawmakers' interest in the meeting, which took place right after his father clinched the Republican nomination, Trump Jr., tweeted a pledge to cooperate with congressional investigators. "Happy to work with the committee to pass on what I know,'' he said Monday.

Trump Jr., along with his brother Eric, took over management of the Trump Organization real estate and licensing business after his father became president.

Trump Organization spokeswoman Amanda Miller said Monday that Trump Jr., had hired New York criminal attorney Alan Futerfas to handle any matters related to the ongoing Russia investigations. In addition to the Senate and House Intelligence committees, the Senate Judiciary Committee also is pursuing a parallel inquiry.

Russia special counsel Robert Mueller is overseeing a separate criminal investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia – and whether the president obstructed justice after abruptly firing FBI Director James Comey, who claims Trump pressed him to drop the FBI's investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Futerfas, whose firm specializes in white collar investigations and prosecutions, did not respond to requests for comment.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said President Trump learned of his son's meeting "in the last couple of days.'' She also reasserted that there was no cooperation between the Trump campaign team and Russian hackers. "No one within the Trump campaign colluded," Sanders said.

Until now, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and top White House adviser, was the most direct link to the president to have drawn public and investigative scrutiny for his past contacts with Russian figures. Outside Kushner, the ongoing investigations have centered around Flynn – who was fired for lying to administration officials about his conversations with Russian officials – and Trump campaign associates.

But Donald Trump Jr. has opened a potentially new avenue of inquiry by disclosing that the pretext of his meeting with Veselnitskaya was to learn whether the attorney had damaging information to share about the Clinton 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,’’ Trump Jr. said in a written statement Sunday. “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.’’

But the statements represented a departure from Trump Jr.'s past remarks. The president's son first denied in March that he had participated in campaign-related meetings with Russian representatives.

On Saturday, the day before conceding that the Veselnitskaya meeting indeed involved campaign interests, Trump Jr., initially said the session – also attended by former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Kushner – was called to discuss Russian adoptions, which were halted by the Kremlin in retaliation for Congress' approval of a 2012 law which blocked suspected human rights abusers from entry to the U.S.

Veselnitskaya has been an aggressive advocate for repealing the law, named for Russian attorney Sergei Magnitsky, who was beaten to death in prison in 2009 after discovering fraud involving Russian tax authorities.

On Monday, Trump Jr., defended both the purpose of the meeting and his evolving explanations, saying on Twitter that the most recent account represented only an elaboration prompted by additional questions.

"No inconsistency in statements,'' he said. "Meeting ended up being primarily about adoptions. In response to further Q's I simply provided more details.'' The questions were posed by the New York Times, which first reported Trump Jr.'s involvement in the meeting.

Yet Trump Jr.'s decision to participate in the meeting at all also was drawing fire on Monday, with some suggesting that it may have violated the law.

In a complaint filed Monday with the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission, the liberal watchdog group Common Cause alleged that Trump Jr., "illegally solicited a political contribution from a foreign national.''

Federal law prohibits the solicitation or receipt of contributions from foreign nationals.

Of his interest in the campaign-related material, Trump Jr., said: "Obviously I'm the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent... went nowhere but had to listen.''

Trump Jr., has asserted that the meeting was set up by a third party, who has since been identified as entertainment publicist Rob Goldstone.

In a statement provided to USA TODAY, Goldstone said Monday that he was asked to arrange the meeting by a client, Russian entertainer Emin Agalarov.

"The lawyer (Veselnitskaya) had apparently stated she had some information regarding illegal campaign contributions to the (Democratic National Committee) which she believed Mr. Trump Jr. might find important,'' Goldstone said. "I reached out to Donald Trump Jr. and he agreed to squeeze us into a very tight meeting schedule.''

At the meeting, Goldstone said the attorney "presented a few very general remarks regarding campaign funding and then quickly turned the topic to that of the Magnitsky Act.''

"At which point, the meeting was halted by Don Jr., and we left,'' Goldstone said. "Nothing came of that meeting and there was no follow up between the two parties.''

Trump Jr. said the session lasted about 20 to 30 minutes, adding that the attorney had "no meaningful information to offer.''

"That was the end of it and there was no further contact or follow-up of any kind,'' he said. "My father knew nothing of the meeting or these events.''

Mark Corallo, the spokesman for President Trump's outside legal team, also said the president had no knowledge of the meeting.

"The president was not aware of and did not attend the meeting,'' Corallo said.</s>President 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 Sunday that the woman told him she had information about Democrat Hillary Clinton.

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

It appeared that 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 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 Trump's campaign coordinated with Russia to meddle in the presidential election, investigations the president has called a "hoax."

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

The Times, citing advisers to the White House who were briefed on the discussion, said Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting after being promised damaging information about Clinton.

In his statement Sunday, Trump Jr. said he was asked by an acquaintance he knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant to have a meeting with a person he was told might have information that would be "helpful" to the Trump campaign. He said he was not told the name of the person ahead of the meeting.

Trump Jr. said the attorney claimed during the discussion to have information that "individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee" and supporting Clinton.

"No details or supporting information was provided or even offered," Trump Jr. said. "It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information."

He said his father was unaware of the meeting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that the Kremlin is unaware of a meeting between Trump's senior staff and a Russian lawyer, that it doesn't know who Veselnitskaya is, and that it "cannot keep track" of every Russian lawyer who holds meetings in Russia or abroad.

On Saturday, Trump Jr. had described the same gathering as a "short introductory meeting" during which the three discussed a program that used to allow U.S. citizens to adopt Russian children. Russia ended the adoptions in response to American sanctions brought against the nation following the 2009 death of an imprisoned lawyer who spoke about a corruption scandal.

He said on Sunday that the attorney turned the conversation to the adoption of Russian children, and that he believed that this was the "true agenda" of the meeting and that claims about having information helpful to the Trump campaign had been a pretext for the encounter.

"I interrupted and advised her that my father was not an elected official, but rather a private citizen, and that her comments and concerns were better addressed if and when he held public office," Trump Jr. said in the statement.

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump's legal team, said only, "The president was not aware of and did not attend the meeting."

Unlike Kushner, Trump Jr. does not serve in the administration and is not required to disclose his foreign contacts. The newspaper said the meeting was disclosed in recent days to government investigators when Kushner filed a revised version of a form needed to obtain a security clearance. His attorney has previously acknowledged that Kushner's first security clearance submission was incomplete.

Manafort also recently disclosed the meeting to congressional investigators, the newspaper said.

The newspaper said Veselnitskaya is known for her attempts to undercut the sanctions against Russian human rights abusers. The Times also said her clients include state-owned businesses and the son of a senior government official whose company was under investigation in the United States at the time of the meeting.</s>Months ago, in “ The President’s Untruths Are Piling Up ,” I summarized the many ways in which people Trump deals with have a lot to do with Russia and its power brokers.

Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven't made a phone call to Russia in years. Don't speak to people from Russia. Not that I wouldn't. I just have nobody to speak to. I spoke to Putin twice. He called me on the election. I told you this. And he called me a few days ago. We had a very good talk, especially the second one ... I have nothing to do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge no person that I deal with does. Now, Manafort has totally denied it. He denied it. Now people knew that he was a consultant over in that part of the world for a while, but not for Russia. I think he represented Ukraine or people having to do with Ukraine.

He replied that aside from Mike Flynn (who ostensibly resigned as national-security adviser for misleading Vice President Pence about a meeting with Russia’s ambassador) he was not aware of any of his campaign advisers having had contacts with Russia.

The most important question that Donald Trump was ever asked in a press conference is suddenly easy to identify: “Can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with Russia during the course of the election?”

But back then, a truth about Trump’s inner-circle had yet to out.

Today, thanks to reporting by The New York Times, the public knows that Donald Trump Jr. arranged a June 9, 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower, having been told that she was flying in from Moscow to pass along documents that would incriminate Hillary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

Trump Jr. invited his father’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and his brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, to the meeting, forwarding them an email with the subject, “Russia - Clinton - Private and Confidential.” Both Manafort and Kushner attended.

Perhaps Donald Trump knew that all this was going on, which would make his statement at the press conference last spring a particularly shameless lie, even by his standards. Only a fool would ever again trust a politician who they caught in a lie like that.

Then again, maybe Trump was oblivious to the meeting that took place in Trump Tower. But if it’s the latter, that means that Trump was so ignorant about what happened inside his own campaign that he didn’t ever know about a meeting his own son scheduled for the purpose of colluding with the Russian government, even though both his campaign manager and his son-in-law were also in attendance. That would mean his closest advisers were actively keeping him in the dark.

Both possibilities, though, point to the same conclusion: The president cannot be believed. Either Trump’s denials about campaign collusion with Russia cannot be believed because he is a shameless liar; or Trump’s denials about campaign collusion with Russia cannot be believed because he was utterly clueless about at least one major effort to collude, and thus cannot credibly attest that there were not other efforts to which he wasn’t privy.

Don’t read more into those assertions than is there.

There is still no evidence that Donald Trump or his campaign successfully colluded with the Russian government (despite Trump Jr.’s intent to do so); no evidence that Trump coordinated with Russia to hack the Democratic National Committee’s emails or funnel them to Wikileaks; no evidence that Trump is a puppet of Vladimir Putin; and no proof that the Kremlin possesses kompromat on the president. But one matter should be beyond dispute, even by Americans who think favorably of the president and his agenda: Trump’s denials about campaign collusion with Russia cannot be believed. Only independent investigators can clear him of suspicion. The benefits of all doubts are lost once a man tells so many untruths.</s>Donald Trump Jr has been forced to release damning emails that reveal he eagerly embraced what he was told was a Russian government attempt to damage Hillary Clinton’s election campaign.

The stunning disclosure raised questions over whether campaign laws were broken and why senior Trump associates failed to report a hostile act by a foreign power.

Trump Jr also admitted on Tuesday night that he could have handled the situation better but he had not told his father about meeting a Russian lawyer because “it was a nothing”.

The emails show music promoter Rob Goldstone telling the future US president’s son that “the crown prosecutor of Russia” had offered “to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father”.

British-born Goldstone adds in the exchange of 3 June 2016: “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump.”

Seventeen minutes later, Trump Jr welcomes this with the reply: “If it’s what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer.”

In a later email, Goldstone describes the Russian lawyer they are due to meet, Natalia Veselnitskaya, as a “Russian government attorney”.

Profile Who is Natalia Veselnitskaya? Show Hide Accusations Natalia Veselnitskaya is the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort at Trump Tower on 9 June 2016. Trump Jr has published emails showing Veselnitskaya was introduced to him as a “Russian government attorney” who had damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Background Veselnitskaya is a defence lawyer based just outside Moscow, whose main client in recent years has been Denis Katsyv, a businessman accused of profiting from a major tax fraud uncovered by lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. She fought his case in US courts and mounted a PR campaign to try to clear Katsyv’s name and overturn the “Magnitsky Act” sanctions against Russian officials that followed. The big question Veselnitskaya is not a government official and portrays herself as a lawyer with a private client. The question, then, is how she was able to secure the meeting at Trump Tower during a presidential campaign and why she was introduced to Trump Jr as representing the Russian government.

Trump Jr agrees, adding that he would probably be accompanied by “Paul Manafort (campaign boss)” and “my brother-in-law,” Jared Kushner, husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka and now a senior White House adviser.

The formatting of the emails suggests that Trump Jr forwarded the whole chain to Manafort and Kushner before the meeting the three attended with Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York on 9 June.

On Sunday, Trump Jr had said he had asked Manafort and Kushner to attend but not told them what the meeting was about. An associate of Manafort said on Tuesday that the former campaign chairman claims not to have read to the bottom of the chain of emails forwarded to him and Kushner by Trump Jr about the meeting. Jamie Gorelick, an attorney for Jared Kushner, did not respond to questions about whether Kushner read the emails and why he attended the meeting.

Critics seized on the new disclosures to question why three of Trump’s closest advisers were willing to accept such a meeting instead of alerting authorities to interference by a foreign adversary. Special counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate intelligence committees are investigating Russian meddling in the election, thought to include stealing Democratic National Committee emails and the use of social-media bots to spread fake news about Clinton.

My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency. Donald Trump

Trump Jr has offered shifting explanations for the meeting in recent days. In an interview broadcast on conservative Fox News on Tuesday night, he again sought to justify his motives but conceded that he could have handled the situation better.

“In retrospect I probably would have done things a little differently,” he told interviewer Sean Hannity. “Again this is before the Russia mania, this is before they were building this up in the press.

Trump Jr denied that he told his father about the meeting. “It was just a nothing,” he added. “There was nothing to tell. I mean, I wouldn’t have even remembered it until you started scouring through this stuff. It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame.”

Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a short statement from the president at the regular White House press briefing. “My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency.”

She then refused to answer several questions on the matter, saying they must be directed to Trump Jr’s legal counsel and outside counsel.

Asked about the president’s reaction to the unfolding drama, Huckabee Sanders replied: “I think the president is, I would say, frustrated with the process, the fact this continues to be an issue and he would love for us to be focused on issues like the economy, healthcare, tax reform, infrastructure.”



‘These emails are explosive’

Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine, a senator from Virginia and member of the foreign relations committee, told MSNBC: “These emails are explosive. This should have set off alarm bells and red lights, and yet what it seemed to do is activate their salivatory glands. This is just wheelbarrows of new evidence for the special counsel and the Senate intelligence committee.”

Trump Jr released the email chain on Tuesday apparently to pre-empt its publication by the New York Times, which, this weekend, first broke the news of his meeting with Veselnitskaya in June last year. Veselnitskaya had promised compromising information about Clinton but apparently failed to deliver.

In a statement posted to Twitter, Trump Jr explained: “To everyone, in order to be totally transparent, I am releasing the entire email chain of my emails with Rob Goldstone about the meeting on June 9, 2016. To put this in context, this occurred before the current Russian fever was in vogue.”

There is no such position as crown prosecutor of Russia, but the most likely candidate would be the long-serving prosecutor general, and a long-standing member of Vladimir Putin’s elite, Yuri Chaika.

Goldstone told the Wall Street Journal his reference to the “crown prosecutor” was meant to mean Veselnitskaya. “It’s a language thing,” he said.

He referred questions from the Guardian to his lawyer.

Trump Jr has given varying reasons for why he accepted the meeting, first claiming it was to discuss American adoptions of Russian children, then acknowledging that he was interested in information about Clinton.

The president’s eldest son denies any wrongdoing and tweeted on Tuesday: “Media and Dems are extremely invested in the Russia story. If this nonsense meeting is all they have after a year, I understand the desperation!”

Goldstone told the Associated Press on Monday he set up the meeting on behalf of a client, pop star Emin Agalarov, the son of a Moscow-based developer, Aras Agalarov, who has close ties to Putin and tried to partner with Trump in a hotel project.



Aras Agalarov worked with Donald Trump to bring the Miss Universe contest to Moscow in 2013. Trump appeared in a music video with Emin Agalarov that featured several Miss Universe contestants.

Goldstone’s 3 June email says the Russian government’s support for Trump is “helped along by Aras and Emin”. He asks if Trump Jr wants to speak to Emin about it directly and proposes: “I can also send this info to your father via Rhona” – presumably Rhona Graff, Donald Trump’s longtime executive assistant – “but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.” It is not clear from the emails whether Goldstone did send any of the information to Trump Sr, who has denied all knowledge of the meeting through his lawyer.

Before the publication of Trump Jr’s emails, Veselnitskaya had denied she had gone to the meeting with information about the Clinton campaign. “It’s quite possible that maybe they were looking for such information, they wanted it so badly,” she told NBC, denying that she had any to offer. She also answered “no” when asked if she had ever worked for the Russian government.

Later, Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the US, dismissed the significance of the Trump Jr meeting. “I don’t think anything about it and to be honest there are more serious things to be think about in relation to Russia,” he told the Guardian at a US-Russia Business Council farewell reception in Washington.

Trump Jr was at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday, according to a police officer at the building.

Eric Trump, Donald Jr’s brother, was spotted in the lobby at around 1.30pm with his wife Lara. Asked by the Guardian if he had any comment on his brother’s emails or knew Goldstone himself, Eric Trump did not respond. He then headed quickly to a gold elevator and headed upwards, staring silently ahead.

The revelations around 39-year-old Trump Jr’s involvement is one of the biggest blows yet in the saga of the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia, which the president has dismissed as a “hoax”.

Republicans on Capitol Hill were taken aback but reluctant to weigh in just yet. At least two Republicans on the Senate intelligence committee, Senators John Cornyn and James Lankford, said Trump Jr should testify before the panel, which is overseeing one of three parallel investigations into Russian interference in the US election.

John McCain, a frequent critic of the Trump administration, said there were “many allusions and many stories of meetings and communications”, while noting he expected there was more yet to come.

Richard Burr, the Republican chief of the Senate intelligence committee, said it was “too early to draw any conclusions”.

Timeline: Trump and associates denied Russia involvement at least 20 times Read more

Burr’s Democratic counterpart, Mark Warner, said it was significant that the emails had been forwarded to Kushner and Manafort.

“They’ve got a lot of explaining to do, because all these denials of any knowledge of Russian government involvement seems to be a gross contradiction here,” Warner told Roll Call.

Some of Trump’s most ardent defenders nonetheless stood by the president. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who competed bitterly against Trump for the Republican nomination, blamed the media for fixating on Russia.

“Russia is a significant adversary,” he told reporters. “Part of the irony of this media obsession with Russia is that the Obama administration began with Hillary Clinton bringing the big reset button with Russia.

Norm Eisen, former ethics czar under President Barack Obama, said: “It’s another significant step forward in the investigation of Trump collusion with Russia because it represents an offer to collude and an acceptance of collusion to harm the campaign of Hillary Clinton and intrude upon our democracy.”

He added: “I believe it’s potentially legally actionable but we need to let the investigation play out. I predict it will not be the last bombshell.”

Additional reporting by Shaun Walker in Moscow and Oliver Laughland and Jon Swaine in New York

Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) Here's my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ

Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) Here is page 4 (which did not post due to space constraints). pic.twitter.com/z1Xi4nr2gq

Sign up for the Minute email. Catch up on today’s US politics news in 60 seconds

</s>Republican Rep. Ted Yoho said it was appropriate for President Donald Trump's son to meet with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign -- and added that he probably would have taken the meeting under the same circumstances.

"Do I think it's appropriate? I think I probably would have done the same thing," the Florida Freedom Caucus member said on "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." "I mean, it's opposition research and, you know, anybody that's been in an election -- you're always looking to get the upper hand."

Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged in a statement Sunday that he met with a Russian lawyer who he had been told "might have information helpful to the campaign." Trump Jr. issued the statement in response to The New York Times' reporting that he "was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton" before agreeing to meet with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer who represents Russians who want to see an end to US sanctions against them -- sanctions that Russian President Vladimir Putin has also strongly opposed. She says she doesn't represent the Russian government and the Kremlin echoes that characterization.

Yoho argued that the meeting was not out of the ordinary.

"Keep in mind, she wasn't an official for the Russian government, the way I understand it. She's a lawyer -- a Russian lawyer -- and if somebody comes to us and says, 'Hey, we've got information on an opponent,' yeah I think that's an appropriate thing to do," Yoho said."I don't think it was inappropriate for what he did. If you've got information about an opponent running against you, wouldn't you want that information to vet it, to see if it's real information, and to use it accordingly? And you can't do that if you don't have the initial meeting." Was it appropriate for Trump Jr to take Russia meeting? Rep. Yoho: "I probably would have done the same thing... it's opposition research" pic.twitter.com/UfddUVu2nO — The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) July 10, 2017 Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting with Veselnitskaya, according to Trump Jr., but he said he told them "nothing of the substance" prior to the meeting. Trump Jr. said it quickly became clear during the meeting that Veselnitskaya had no information he deemed meaningful, and that Veselnitskaya primarily wanted to secure the meeting to talk about a law pertaining to adoptions.</s>US President Donald Trump’s son has said he did not tell his father about a meeting with a Russian lawyer who said she could help his election campaign.

Donald Trump Jr told Fox News that his meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in June last year was “just a nothing”, but in retrospect, he would have done things differently.

Asked by Fox News if he had told his father about the meeting, Trump Jr said: “No. It was just a nothing. There was nothing to tell.”

The Russian lawyer, Veselnitskaya, whom Donald Trump Jr had allegedly met, had denied in an interview with NBC News having ever acted on behalf of the Russian government.</s>WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has lauded the "transparency" of his eldest son over the release of a chain of emails showing a Russian source offering "sensitive information" about his White House rival Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the presidential election.In an email to 39-year-old Donald Trump Jr, who is in the middle of a political storm over his meetings with a Russian source, his music publicist Rob Goldstone said the information "would incriminate Hillary (Clinton) and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father"."My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency," Trump said in a statement which was read out by the White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders during her daily news conference.While Trump Jr said he hopes that by releasing these emails would bring an end to the controversy, the opposition political leaders called for investigation and claimed that this is yet another indication of the connection between the Trump campaign and the Russians."Donald Trump Jr has admitted and documented that he, Jared Kushner, and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer with the understanding that she was a Russian government lawyer providing damaging information on Hillary Clinton as part of Moscow's effort to help President Trump's campaign," said Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi."The attempt by these top Trump advisors - to solicit the support of a hostile foreign power to win the American presidency - is unprecedented in our history," he said."The need for Special Counsel Mueller's investigation and our Congressional inquiries to continue has never been more clear."Pending any investigation, no one who participated in the Trump Tower meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya should have access to any classified information, especially material relevant to our national security," Krishnamoorthi said.Senator Ben Cardin, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the email shows that Trump Jr clearly understood the intent of the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya."Instead of welcoming information from the Russian government, the Trump team should have immediately notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation."I'm not a prosecutor, but I think this is an extremely serious issue and needs to be followed up on by Robert Mueller's investigation and the Congressional Intelligence Committees immediately," Cardin demanded.Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein said these emails are deeply disturbing."They appear to show direct coordination between the Trump campaign and possibly the Russian government itself," she said."There's no escaping it: the Trump Campaign's inner circle met with an agent of a hostile foreign power to influence the outcome of an American election.The American people face a White House riddled with shadowy Russian connections and desperate to hide the truth," said Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi."One after another, senior Trump officials have been caught hiding secret meetings with Russian agents. The incendiary news of the meeting arranged by Donald Trump Jr is a grave development in the investigation of Trump officials' possible collusion with Moscow," she said.The New York Times, which first broke the story, said the emails show just how eager Trump Jr was to accept what he was explicitly told was the Russian government's help in his father's campaign against Hillary Clinton."The Justice Department, as well as the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, is examining whether any of President Trump's associates colluded with the Russian government to disrupt last year's election. American intelligence agencies have determined that the Russian government tried to sway the election in favour of Trump," the report said.The daily claimed that Trump Jr released the entire chain of emails on Twitter after it told him that they were publishing the emails that they had in their possession.Several Congressional committees were reportedly considering to question Trump Jr about his meeting with a Russian offer of providing compromising information about Hillary Clinton.Congresswoman Grace Meng sent a letter to the US Federal Election Commission urging that it perform an official investigation into the actions of the Trump campaign to determine whether they violated federal election and criminal law.Congressman Elijah E Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the email chain confirms that the president's son was both aware of and supported the Russian government's efforts to help the president get elected."Our country has a fundamental principle that a foreign adversary should not and cannot interfere with our sacred elections, period. The soul of our very democracy depends on it. I remind my colleagues from both parties--the Constitution does not give Congress the right to remain silent in the face of this threat. We must investigate. And we must act on our findings," he said.The Washington Post said these emails clearly showed that Trump Jr understood he was taking the meeting as a way of channeling information directly from the government of a nation hostile to the United States to his father's campaign."It is the most concrete public evidence to date suggesting that top Trump campaign aides were eager for Russia's assistance in the campaign," the daily reported.Sanders told reporters that President Trump is frustrated that Russia continues to be an issue."I think that the President is, I would say, frustrated with the process of the fact that this continues to be an issue," she said in response to a question."And he would love for us to be focused on things, like the economy, on healthcare, on tax reform, on infrastructure. And that's the place that his mind is, and that's what he'd like to be discussing," Sanders said.
Donald Trump Jr. discloses emails in which he and Rob Goldstone discuss gathering opposition research against Hillary Clinton through a June 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.