Trump Says ‘Most Politicians’ Would Have Met With Russian Lawyer For Dirt

President Donald Trump stops briefly in front of reporters as he and first lady Melania Trump walk to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 5, 2017. The Trumps are heading to ... President Donald Trump stops briefly in front of reporters as he and first lady Melania Trump walk to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 5, 2017. The Trumps are heading to Poland and then Germany for the G20. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) MORE LESS
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President Donald Trump on Monday acknowledged a meeting between his son and a Russian lawyer who a family acquaintance promised in June 2016 would provide damaging information on Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to aide Trump’s campaign. Trump said “most politicians” would have accepted such a meeting.

The endorsement of the meeting comes after months of Trump saying the entire story of Russian interference in the election, including possible coordination with his campaign, was a “hoax.” Multiple members of the Trump campaign, including Trump himself, frequently denied that anyone from the campaign met with any representatives of the Russian government, a claim that has since been proven false not only by Trump Jr.’s meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, but also from multiple campaign officials’ meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. 

Then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump’s son-in-law and campaign aide Jared Kushner also attended the meeting with Veselnitskaya. Multiple outlets reported Friday that former Russian counterintelligence officer Rinat Akhmetsin was also in the room. And CNN reported Friday that a representative of the powerful Russian family that asked publicist Rob Goldstone to arrange the meeting was also present, as well as a Russian translator, bringing the total attendance to eight.

When Trump Jr. released “the entire email chain” leading up to the meeting on Tuesday, and in a subsequent interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, he acknowledged only five attendees — himself, the two campaign aides, Goldstone and Veselnitskaya.

The President’s claims have shifted in recent days regarding what he knew about the meeting, and when. His support of his son, however, has remained constant despite growing evidence that Trump Jr. was not fully forthcoming about the meeting, which he originally said only addressed adoption issues and not dirt on Clinton.

After the Hannity interview, the President called his son’s performance “open, transparent and innocent.”

He’s since taken his frustration out on Democrats and the media, who he’s said are pushing a “Russian hoax story.”

A member of the President’s legal team, Jay Sekulow, even wondered aloud on Sunday why, if the meeting was so “nefarious,” the Secret Service would allow the Russian visitors in to Trump Tower to attend it — though that fundamentally misrepresents the agency’s role.

To some, Trump’s statement Monday read as an acknowledgement that his son agreed to a meeting in which he intended to collude with a foreign power to influence the election.

Asked about the meeting, Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Christopher Wray, said in a confirmation hearing Wednesday that “any threat or effort to interfere with our election from any nation state or any nonstate actor is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know.”

This post has been updated.

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  1. You don’t know a goddamn thing about politics, you ignorant ape. I doubt there’s a person on the federal payroll who knows less than you, you brain-dead ignoramus. The game has rules. Letting foreign intelligence services lead you around by the nose is against the rules, you amoral piece of human garbage.

  2. But mommy, the other kids were doing it too.

  3. What say you, Speaker Ryan?

  4. He would say he doesn’t agree with that. And then he would change the subject.

  5. Trump dares his own party with these sorts of statements and he is long past his pull date. Ryan and McConnell do not care.

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