GOP Congressman: Emails Show Trump Jr. Meeting Was ‘A Big No-No’

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 16: Lee Zeldin, republican candidate from New York's 1st Congressional District, is interviewed by Roll Call. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
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Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) said Tuesday that Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of a government effort to help Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was “a big no-no.”

The New York Times reported over the weekend that Trump, accompanied by Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, met with the Kremlin-connected lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016 after promises that she would provide damaging on Hillary Clinton.

On Tuesday, anticipating another New York Times story detailing the communications leading up to the meeting, Donald Trump Jr. released what he said was the full email chain leading to the meeting.

In the emails, family acquaintance Rob Goldstone promised Trump that an unnamed “Russian government attorney” would provide “documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.”

The information, Goldstone wrote in the emails, was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

“If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer,” Trump Jr. replied.

Zeldin’s position has changed dramatically since Monday, when he said the story was
“[m]issing too many elements” and “appears to be big nothingburger.”

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