Does bombshell email show Trump Jr. knew about Russia's campaign help?
Donald Trump Jr reportedly knew a 2016 meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s campaign.
Three people with knowledge of the email, sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter, said the Russian government was the source of potentially damaging information on Hillary Clinton, according to the New York Times.
The email does not elaborate on the wider effort by Moscow to help the Trump campaign, and there is no evidence to suggest that the promised damaging information was related to Russian government computer hacking that led to the release of thousands of Democratic National Committee emails.
But the email is likely to be of interest to ongoing investigations at to whether Russia disrupted last year’s election.
Mr Goldstone helped broker the June 2016 meeting between Mr Trump and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, but it is unclear if he had any direct knowledge where the information was coming from.
In a statement, Mr Trump said while he was interested in the information he gave no indication he thought the lawyer was connected to the Kremlin.
Mr Trump’s lawyer Alan Futerfas said his client had done nothing wrong and had no knowledge as to what specific information was going to be discussed in the meeting.
“In my view, this is much ado about nothing. During this busy period, Robert Goldstone contacted Don Jr in an email and suggested that people had information concerning alleged wrongdoing by Democratic Party front-runner, Hillary Clinton, in her dealings with Russia,” he said.
Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr Trump “did not collude in anyway” to influence the election.
The president was aggravated over news of the meeting, according to a source close to him.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the Kremlin was 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.
