NYT: Trump Jr., Manafort and Kushner Met With Russian Lawyer After Being Promised Damaging Information on Clinton

Yesterday the New York Times broke the news that despite his categorical denial that he ever met with Russian nationals during the Trump campaign, Donald Trump Jr, had in fact done so. The scientific term for Trump Jr.’s denial is “a lie.”

But today, the Times is bringing out more details about the meeting between Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, and now it looks even worse — because the meeting was set up because Trump Jr. expected Veselnitskaya to give him damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

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.

The meeting — at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, two weeks after Donald J. Trump clinched the Republican nomination — points to the central question in federal investigations of the Kremlin’s meddling in the presidential election: whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians. The accounts of the meeting represent the first public indication that at least some in the campaign were willing to accept Russian help.

The Times states that when Trump’s son was contacted yesterday and asked about the meeting, he said nothing about Hillary Clinton. And today, Trump Jr. released another statement in which he basically admits he expected to get negative info on Clinton:

In a statement on Sunday, Donald Trump Jr. said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance. “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he said, “the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton. 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.”

A big question here: who was the “acquaintance” who arranged this meeting?

To sum up, Trump Jr. apparently sees nothing wrong about colluding with Kremlin-connected Russian nationals to get damaging information about a political opponent, obtained by hacking US agencies.

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