NYT July 10: "Trump Jr. Was Told in Email of Russian Effort to Aid Campaign"



Democratic National Committee
July 10, 2017

DNC Statement on Donald Trump Jr.

In response to tonight’s report that Donald Trump Jr. was told that the Russian government was behind an effort to provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton and help his father’s campaign, DNC deputy communications director Adrienne Watson issued the following statement:
 
“This isn’t just smoke anymore. Donald Jr. was willing to accept the help of a hostile foreign government to sway the election. In the ensuing months, the Trump family watched as news of the Kremlin’s hacking campaign developed and they did nothing but celebrate and encourage it to continue.
 
“It is time for Donald Trump, his family, and his team to stop lying and come clean about their contacts with Russia, what they knew about the Kremlin’s effort to help them, and when they knew it.

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American Bridge 21st Century

Four Times Donald Trump Jr. Lied About Colluding With Russia After Meeting With A Russian Agent

Donald Trump Jr.'s bombshell admission over the weekend is the clearest example to date that members of President Trump's inner circle are at the heart of this scandal, and unfortunately for Trump Jr., his previous statements ensure this is only going to get much, much worse for him. Trump Jr. has been lying about his contacts with Russians for almost a year now, starting with his first lie that is dated just weeks after the meeting in question. At that time, he brought a Kremlin-tied lawyer to Trump Tower to meet with then-campaign chair Paul Manafort and then-campaign senior adviser Jared Kushner to obtain damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Days after the meeting at Trump Tower, Russian hackers attacked the DNCemail system. A month later the stolen emails were leaked just in time to spur negative media coverage around the Democratic National Convention.
 
The timing of this meeting is not a coincidence, it is collusion.

As this scandal continues to unfold here are four lies from Donald Trump Jr. that will come back to haunt him:
 
July 25, 2016 (just ONE MONTH after he set up the meeting):  “JAKE TAPPER: So I don’t know if you were hearing earlier, but Robby Mook, the campaign manager for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I asked him about the DNC leak and he suggested that experts are saying that Russians were behind both the hacking of the DNC emails and their release. He seemed to be suggesting that this is part of a plot to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton. Your response? “DONALD TRUMP, JR.: It just goes to show you their exact moral compass. They'll say anything to be able to win this. I mean, this is time and time again. Lie after lie. You know, he won’t say, “Well, I say this – we hear experts.” You know, his house cat at home once said that this is what’s happening with the Russians. It’s disgusting. It’s so phony. I watched him bumble through the interview, I was able to hear it on audio a little bit. I can’t think of bigger lies. But that exactly goes to show you what the DNC and what the Clinton camp will do. They will lie and do anything to win. You hear it with the DNC where they're leaking emails about Bernie Sanders and his Jewish heritage to be able to try and destroy him in the south. It’s a rigged system. It’s disgusting. And the people should be fed up. Because when I heard it I certainly was. There’s nothing wrong with a fair fight, Jake. I don’t mind a fair fight. But these lies and the perpetuating of that kind of nonsense to try to gain some political capital is just outrageous and he should be ashamed of himself. If a Republican did that, they’d be calling for people to bring out the electric chair.”

June 6, 2017: “I mean to me, it’s without a question, it reads and smells like a witch hunt.”
 
June 10, 2017: “When I see what’s going on right now, when I see what went on for ten months with the Russia nonsense and the smear, and then we see what happens on Thursday, it’s like give me a break. I mean they literally spent ten months chasing a rabbit down a hole with essentially the sole purpose of trying to take down my father. We were vindicated, I mean, totally.”
 
March 2017: Donald Trump Jr. Said He Never Had A “Set Up” Meeting With Russian Nationals While Representing The Campaign In “Any Way, Shape, Or Form.” “Donald Trump Jr. had denied participating in any campaign-related meetings with Russian nationals when he was interviewed by The Times in March. “Did I meet with people that were Russian? I’m sure, I’m sure I did,” he said. “But none that were set up. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form.” Asked at that time whether he had ever discussed government policies related to Russia, the younger Mr. Trump replied, “A hundred percent no.”

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Donald Trump Jr.
July 11, 2016

Here's my statement and the full email chain

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. The first email on June 3, 2016 was from Rob, who was relating a request from Emin a person I knew from the 2013 Ms. Universe Pageant near Moscow. Emin and his father have a very highly respected company in Moscow. The information they suggested they had about Hillary Clinton I thought was Political Opposition Research. I first wanted to just have a phone call but when that didn't work out, they said the woman would be in New York and asked if I woud meet. I decided to take the meeting. The woman, as she has said publicly, was not a government official. And, as we have said, she had no information to provide and wanted to talk about adoption policy and the Magnitsky Act. To put this in context, this occurred before the current Russian fever was in vogue. As Rob Goldstone said just today in the press, the entire meeting was "the most inane nonsense I ever heard. And I was actually agitated by it."