Trump Jr. met with Russian lawyer who promised damaging info on Clinton

Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential campaign, after being promised damaging information about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

President Trump’s son attended the meeting with the expectation that he would receive compromising information about his father’s opponent, three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two other sources with knowledge of the matter told the Times.

Then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also attended the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, which was recently disclosed after confidential government documents were described to the New York Times.

It is unclear whether Veselnitskaya provided the promised information about Clinton, the Times noted, but wrote that accounts of this meeting “represent[s] the first public indication that at least some in the campaign were willing to accept Russian help.”

Trump Jr. said in a statement to the paper on Sunday that he had met with Veselnitskaya at the request of an acquaintance and denied that he received any information on Clinton.

A spokesman for the president’s lawyer told the Times that “the president was not aware of and did not attend the meeting.”

Veselnitskaya told the Times in a Saturday statement that “nothing at all about the presidential campaign” was discussed. She “never acted on behalf of the Russian government,” she said, and “never discussed any of these matters with any representative of the Russian government.”

“After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton,” Trump Jr. said in his statement. “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.”

He said they then talked about American adoptions of Russian children.

“It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting.” Trump Jr. told the paper.

He also said in his statement to the Times that Kushner and Manafort attended the meeting at his request, and were not aware of the purpose of the meeting.

The spokespeople and lawyers for Kushner and Manafort did not immediately respond to the newspaper’s requests for comment.

Trump’s eldest son — who was working as a surrogate for the campaign at the time — met with the lawyer at Trump Tower in early June, two weeks after his father had clinched the Republican nomination.

The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Russian hackers worked to sway the election in favor of Trump. Several congressional committees and the Department of Justice are probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 contest and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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166 Responses to Trump Jr. met with Russian lawyer who promised damaging info on Clinton

  1. Republicans plan to defend collusion with a hostile foreign govt
    Department of Justice defying court orders

    This WILL NOT end well……

  2. https://twitter.com/TPM/status/885515382706057217

    Here’s your evidence. Lets see you read through that liberals… cuz that’s all you gon git…

  3. What in the hell happened to a Nation of Laws? The Justice Department defying court orders. Get this thug out of our Justice Department.

  4. As my classmate Bonnie use to say…you already know….black folks!
    bwa ha ha ha

    https://twitter.com/MatthewACherry/status/884856259706404864

  5. Lets see some indictments handed down. We need action!

    https://twitter.com/PostRoz/status/884848579680112640

  6. Just listen to this lying shameless crook. He’s fucking dangerous.

    https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/884798058881576960

    • eliihass says:

      Pure evil..

      The apple falls right at the feet of its father and mother..

    • eliihass says:

      We know well who and what his despicable father is…

      Here’s a reminder and a refresher on who his mother is too…

      An interview from last year:

      “…It’s Ivana Trump’s fault that Donald didn’t run for president sooner.

      “Probably five years before our divorce, Reagan or somebody brought him a letter and said, ‘You should run for president,’ ” Donald’s first wife tells The Post at her opulent seven-floor Upper East Side town house, which she purchased for $2.8 million in 1998.

      “So he was thinking about it. But then . . . there was the divorce, there was the scandal, and American women loved me and hated him,” she says, referencing Donald’s much-publicized infidelity with Marla Maples that led to the power couple’s 1991 split. “So there was no way that he would go into [politics] at that point,” Ivana says. “But he was always tooling around with the idea.”

      No tooling now — now, Donald’s the GOP front-runner.

      And Ivana, a self-proclaimed conservative who has mended fences with her ex, is along for the ride — acting as Donald’s cheerleader and, at times, adviser.

      While Ivana says she’s not political — “I was born in a Communist country [Czechoslovakia] and I don’t like politics” — she frets that America has lost its prestige. “We have to get it back.”

      The first step? Adopting Donald’s immigration policies. “And I’m an immigrant,” Ivana says.

      “I have nothing against Mexicans, but if they [come] here — like this 19-year-old, she’s pregnant, she crossed over a wall that’s this high” — Ivana lowers her hand to 4 inches above her wall-to-wall carpeting. “She gives the birth in American hospital, which is for free. The child becomes American automatically. She brings the whole family, she doesn’t pay the taxes, she doesn’t have a job, she gets the housing, she gets the food stamps. Who’s paying? You and me.

      “As long as you come here legally and get a proper job . . . we need immigrants. Who’s going to vacuum our living rooms and clean up after us? Americans don’t like to do that.”

      http://nypost.com/2016/04/03/ivana-trump-opens-up-about-how-she-advises-donald-his-hands/

    • Ametia says:

      “Moral compass?” This slimy, LYING mofo, right here.

  7. Jeff Sessions: Russia collusion claim ‘detestable lie’

    https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/884650578089050112

  8. Tim Kaine says we’re beyond obstruction of justice in terms of what’s being investigated. This is moving into perjury, false statements & potential treason.

    https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/884788248744267776

  9. Y’all see this ISH? White people STOP IT! Donald Trump Jr should be in handcuffs.

    https://twitter.com/CBSThisMorning/status/884731939927797760

  10. Sebastian Gorka is full of ISH. He wants to make this about Hillary, Bill Clinton and whoever! FOH! Don Trump Jr need to be in handcuffs. He wasn’t some naive little youngster who didn’t know what he was doing. TREASON!

  11. rikyrah says:

    The Hill@thehill 10m10 minutes ago
    #BREAKING: Trump Jr. was told potential Clinton info came from Russian government before meeting: report http://hill.cm/fuilMb5
    https://twitter.com/JesseFF

    ……………………………….

    what I love…is that they let him twist in the wind… change his story…and, then find one where everyone is on board, trying to find excuses for him..

    THEN, the NYT drops..

    Oh, by the way, muthaphucka. ..we HAVE THE EMAIL THAT YOU GOT TELLING YOU WHAT THE MEETING WAS ABOUT.

    BOOM.

    All those pundits, who were twisting themselves today, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt that he never earned..

    they look like the fools that they are.

  12. Trump Administration people who have hired lawyers….

    Trump

    Flynn

    Manafort

    Pence

    Kushner

    Sessions

    Page

    Trump Jr

  13. Ametia says:

    *SIGH* How much longer are we going to have to ENDURE the mockery, sham of a presidency with the POS #45 & his thuggery entourage

  14. rikyrah says:

    Trump’s Inner Circle Met With No Ordinary Russian Lawyer
    by Martin Longman
    July 10, 2017 1:16 PM

    Hopefully, by now you know what the following tweet refers to:

    Obviously I’m the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent… went nowhere but had to listen. https://t.co/ccUjL1KDEa

    — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017

    ……………………………….

    These headlines are missing the actual scandal here. Natalia Veselnitskaya is a lot more than a “Russian lawyer.” To fully explain who she is would require me to write a novel length post, so I’m going to ask you to do a little of the work here by following some of the links. You can start by skimming through the complaint that then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara filed against Denis Katsyv and his corporations. What you’ll find is a painfully detailed description of the biggest tax heist in modern Russian history and the astonishing amount of work that went into laundering the proceeds from the robbery. You’ll discover that the conspiracy was hatched and carried out by members of the Klyuev Group. Members of the Klyuev Group are described as Russian mobsters linked to the Russian government. In this case they’re linked to the Russian government through connections in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Tax Ministry, and the courts. Without these connections, the tax heist would not have been possible.

    The conspiracy was very, very complicated and I spent many hours over the weekend reading up on it. I won’t attempt to retell the whole story here. One thing you need to know, though, is that the folks who uncovered the conspiracy have not had an easy time of it. The first man to piece it all together died at the hands of the Interior Ministry. Another was recently pushed out of a 4th story window.

    The key figure in Bharara’s case, Denis Katsyv, was represented by Natalia Veselnitskaya. She was the guest who met with Trump’s inner circle. Another key figure, Andrey Pavlov, is described as “the consigliere for the Klyuev Group.”

    Now, one of the most curious things about this case is that it involved a $230 million theft from the Russian treasury but Vladimir Putin hasn’t shown the least bit of concern about the lost money. Instead, he’s been happy to see the whistleblowers and investigators arrested, beaten to death and pushed out of windows.

    At this point, we need to discuss an act of Congress called the Magnitsky Act:

    The Magnitsky Act, formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and President Obama in November–December 2012, intending to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009.

  15. Breaking News: Donald Trump Jr has lawyered up….

    https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/884497815770214402

  16. The media is trying their best to sell us the bs that Trump Jr didn’t know who he was meeting. We’re not buying what you’re selling. FOH❗️

  17. rikyrah says:

    Despite the 2016 attack, Trump ready to ‘move forward’ with Russia
    07/10/17 08:30 AM
    By Steve Benen

    After Donald Trump’s recent skirmish with some MSNBC hosts, many were reminded of Melania Trump’s plans to combat cyber-bullying – which her husband appeared to be engaged in. Asked for comment, Melania Trump didn’t seem at all concerned about the president’s abusive behavior, saying through a spokesperson that “when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder.”

    The president does not, however, seem to apply that standard to the United States. When the country is attacked, Trump not only fails punch back 10 times harder, he also agrees to cozy up to the adversary responsible for the attack. Here was the Washington Post’s report from midday yesterday:

    President Trump vowed Sunday to “move forward in working constructively with Russia,” including forming a cybersecurity unit between the two countries, after Russian President Vladimir Putin denied any interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

    Trump’s pledge to partner with Putin on cybersecurity drew swift and stern denunciations from both Democratic and Republican officials, who described the U.S. president as dangerously naive for trusting his Russian counterpart.

    ………………………………..

    As is always the case, it’s best to pay less attention to what Trump and his aides say and more attention to what they do. In this case, in response to the most serious attack against the United States since 9/11, Team Trump has done nothing, is doing nothing, and intends to continue to do nothing – except partner with Russia on some kind of “cyber-security unit.”

    This was, of course, a ridiculous idea – when someone breaks into your house, you don’t reach out to them to install a new home-security system – and yet, the White House dispatched Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to ABC News’ “This Week” yesterday to tout the cyber-security unit as “a very significant accomplishment for President Trump.”

  18. rikyrah says:

    Hmm…Trump’s very 1ST tweet about HRC’s “missing 33,000 emails” appears to be from 6/9/16, after Manafort, Kushner, Don Jr met the Russian pic.twitter.com/sJcSRaSXZv
    — Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) July 10, 2017

  19. rikyrah says:

    This is completely the fault of Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan & the entire @GOP’s Power, Party & MONEY over Country & Constitution insanity. https://t.co/VhHKqjjFo4
    — bardgal (@bardgal) July 10, 2017

    Because Paul Ryan is on Putin’s payroll, and so is the @GOP. https://t.co/OoluB4AFtW
    — bardgal (@bardgal) July 10, 2017

  20. rikyrah says:

    I have no doubt that Former @FBI Director Mueller has every intention of putting @realdonaldtrump & his #CrimeKlan in JAIL.
    — Bobfr (@Our4thEstate) July 10, 2017

  21. rikyrah says:

    The stories on this meeting, btw, are not coming from investigators but rather people in WH orbit.
    — Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) July 10, 2017

  22. https://twitter.com/sloiaconi/status/884390793246650368

    Kellyann Conway’s lies denying a meeting happened is played back for her….BOOM!

    https://twitter.com/richardhine/status/884411341326475265

  23. rikyrah says:

    If Mueller starts really going after Trump’s son, it’s hard to imagine what Trump wouldn’t do to stop it. We’re headed for dangerous times.
    — Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) July 10, 2017

  24. rikyrah says:

    The story now shifts from presidential collusion to congressional complicity https://t.co/oVHrjL7CDH
    — David Frum (@davidfrum) July 9, 2017

  25. rikyrah says:

    This was only 11 hours ago. It hasn’t aged very well. https://t.co/8MwtZGnByf
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 10, 2017

  26. rikyrah says:

    This is why racism…white supremacy..white privilege are a THREAT to National Security
    — Pretty Foot (@PrettyFootWoman) July 9, 2017

  27. rikyrah says:

    Pence lied about this.
    Then installed a foreign agent as APNSA. And lied about that.
    Pence will not be president after Trump. https://t.co/sqU6pEGEWb
    — Eric Garland (@ericgarland) July 9, 2017

  28. rikyrah says:

    Whoa. So the money people for the campaign met in the same building with the Russian spy/lawyer who offered hacked emails.
    *chin scratch* https://t.co/I2uWKosnnT
    — Eric Garland (@ericgarland) July 9, 2017

  29. rikyrah says:

    This from @brianstelter is 💯 https://t.co/96XNfyOMMx
    — Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 9, 2017

  30. rikyrah says:

    They’ve been briefing their friends this story was coming https://t.co/JotaURY5hj
    — David Frum (@davidfrum) July 9, 2017

  31. rikyrah says:

    There was no hacking
    if there was, it wasn’t Russians
    If it was, I didn’t collude
    If I colluded, collusion’s not so bad.
    It’s Obama’s fault pic.twitter.com/OXakTlraC2
    — ♀️ The Anti-Trump (@Im_TheAntiTrump) July 9, 2017

  32. rikyrah says:

    BREAKING: Trump was in NYC on June 9, 2016 meeting w/ Priebus, Christie, Lewandowski and MANAFORT. He *knew*, folks. https://t.co/VTZBgeJjU2
    — Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) July 9, 2017

  33. rikyrah says:

    You’d be amazed how many CI cases start with some asshat getting caught lying on an SF-86 or similar security form.

    https://t.co/I50wWdVWxP
    — John Schindler (@20committee) July 9, 2017

  34. rikyrah says:

    The Collusion Walls Start to Close In on the Trump Family
    by David Atkins
    July 9, 2017 8:20 PM

    Big Russia-shaped bombshells are dropping today on Trump, his direct family, and his campaign.

    First and most important, it looks like for the first time we have direct admitted evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to damage the Clinton campaign with illegally obtained information:

    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 recently disclosed the meeting, though not its content, in confidential government documents described to The New York Times.

    …………………………

    The problems for Trump Jr. here are several.

    First, there is no reason at all to believe that any of Trump’s family and associates are telling the truth now, either. They have lied and omitted key details about all their meetings with Russian agents in the past, and we should have no reason to believe their statements about what happened during these meetings now.

    Second, there’s the reality that Trump’s immediate family and campaign were actively seeking damaging information about their political opponents from a hostile foreign adversary, and allowed themselves to be lobbied on a law designed to punish the murder of political activists by that same adversary. Even if you were to take the Trump team’s statements at face value, we now have Trump’s son and onetime campaign manager directly admitting that they sought to collude with Russia on negative information about Clinton.

    Third, we now know once again that Trump and his associates lied about this and other meetings they had with Russian agents and officials.

    Finally, the fact that all this information is coming out now means that someone on the inside is talking. That in itself is deeply problematic for Republicans, and it could start to make various members of the inner circle seek out reputational life rafts rather than stay loyal to the captain’s of a sinking ship. It’s not as if the Trump family has ever shown much loyalty to their underlings in return for their service, after all. It doesn’t pay to fall on one’s sword for them.

  35. rikyrah says:

    Hmmmmmmmm…..

    PPCLI says:
    July 10, 2017 at 4:23 am
    @SiubhanDuinne: It is striking that DTJr is releasing statements, but this is an unusual situation — most targets of investigations don’t have access to intelligence briefings that detail the evidence against them.

    The strategy up to now has been just deny, deny, deny until evidence contradicts the denials, and then change the story and deny, deny, deny some more, until evidence contradicts those denials, and… Probably the lawyers they have now all just hired (the real lawyers, not the thugs previously on the job whose sole skill is to threaten and launch ruinous lawsuits) have pointed out that repeatedly getting caught in demonstrable lies is, and can be taken in court to be, evidence of consciousness of guilt.

    So instead the tactic is: extract from the briefings etc. (plus any friendly sources in the FBI, CIA, …) exactly what information various agencies have about what went on in the meeting. Admit to everything that can be proven, and get out front on minimizing it. That’s why Don Jr.’s lawyers carefully crafted this statement and Don Jr. released it under his name.

    So, fx, I assume that there are recordings or other solid evidence that make it clear that the Magnitsky act was discussed. So: say that the contact brought it up, and that they immediately shut the meeting down. Perhaps there is evidence that the meeting took at least 30 minutes, but no evidence about exactly how long: so assert that the meeting took exactly 30 minutes. Intelligence can document exactly who it was who contacted Don Jr. to bring about the meeting, so admit that, but characterize the person as “an acquaintance”. Etc.

    That’s why the statement is released, and as one of the Wittes tweets points out, all the sourcing for this story is from White House aides. This is a new coordinated strategy. Maybe they figure that it is the best they can do, given what is still to drop.

  36. rikyrah says:

    Another good one from Balloon Juice:

    Joyce H says:
    July 10, 2017 at 4:00 am
    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It simply beggars belief that Manafort and Kushner, at the height of the campaign, and with the convention only weeks off, would attend a meeting with someone they (supposedly) didn’t know for a (supposedly) agenda-less discussion.

    More than that – it also beggars belief that Trump himself was not at this meeting. We know from the schedule that he was actually in Trump Tower at the time, and that he and his closest aides were meeting to prepare for a speech he was going to give on negative stuff about Clinton. And along comes a lawyer who claims to have negative info about Clinton, and she turns out to be an attractive foreign woman decades younger than Trump, which is (WHAT a coINcidence!) just His Type. But his three main guys take this meeting IN HIS OWN OFFICES, and he doesn’t know about it and doesn’t attend? Please.

  37. rikyrah says:

    From Balloon Juice:

    jl says:
    July 10, 2017 at 2:50 am
    The GOP has been getting away with this garbage for so long, it looks like Trumpster crooks figured its so damn easy, you you just do whatever the hell you want, it’s and never a problem
    Nixon, Reagan did it with GOP help. Bush I was busy barricading himself from the Reagan escapade he maybe didn’t have time. McCain tried it when one of his foreign policy advisers, who doubled as an adviser to Georgia, tried to gin up a little international crisis with the Rooskies and their occupation of Ossetia.

    The cover story that Donnie Jr went to the meeting thinking that a Russian lawyer had some dirt on HRC, but walked after it turned out to be some BS crap about poor orphans and mumble bumble, Magnitsky Act, was so absurd and incoherent and damning on its own terms, I’m not surprised it fell apart in less than a day. As I mentioned in the thread below, amazing to think that is the f*ck*ng cover story.

  38. rikyrah says:

    Bush 43 WH ethics lawyer on NYT story/Donald Trump Jr. and Kushner meeting with Russian lawyer: “This borders on treason” via @MSNBC pic.twitter.com/Ceu5xLYgnB

    — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 9, 2017

  39. rikyrah says:

    The idea that the information’s lack of strategic value makes it exculpatory… no words https://t.co/hsB7FVkyxT

    — Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) July 9, 2017

  40. rikyrah says:

    The argument is “She tricked me with the offer of collusion and I bailed when that turned out to be bogus?” pic.twitter.com/DUnDFm1jUe

    — Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 9, 2017

    And, perhaps the biggest news out of this NYT story is that the spokesperson for Pres. Trump’s legal team let Don Jr. out all on his own. pic.twitter.com/60bqhvv4j3

    — Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) July 9, 2017

  41. rikyrah says:

    Short version–> @DonaldJTrumpJr met with known Russian agent to get damaging info on Clinton and was disappointed when she didn’t deliver

    — Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) July 9, 2017

    Either that meeting was more important than they’re saying or it was easy to get Trump’s 3 closest aides in a meeting w/ a pointless nobody.

    — Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) July 10, 2017

  42. rikyrah says:

    This is a very interesting graf. POTUS denies knowledge and Trump Jr.’s statement clears both Manafort and Kushner. Jr. takes the fall. /8/ pic.twitter.com/xbuVI0clSk

    — Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) July 9, 2017

  43. rikyrah says:

    This graf is devastating, however. It shows that the Trump folks were willing to cooperate with Kremlin in exchange for dirt on Hillary. pic.twitter.com/UPLqnOQa0d

    — Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) July 9, 2017

  44. rikyrah says:

    First, note the sourcing. This is clearly NOT an investigative leak. This is a set of White House admissions in response to the story. /2/ pic.twitter.com/YUW64ZczRX

    — Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) July 9, 2017

  45. rikyrah says:

    Mueller chilling on Sunday
    NYT: Donald Trump Jr was promised damaging info about Hillary before agreeing to meet Russian lawyer
    Mueller: pic.twitter.com/JOOvr118QJ
    — Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) July 9, 2017

  46. rikyrah says:

    “I secretly met with a Kremlin lawyer to discuss adoption….or to get kompromat on Hillary. Can’t recall which.”

    https://t.co/chmx3NOm21
    — John Schindler (@20committee) July 9, 2017

  47. rikyrah says:

    Donald Trump Jr. was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before meeting with a Russian lawyer https://t.co/yVjD8K2o1e
    — The New York Times (@nytimes) July 9, 2017

  48. Ametia says:

    Ugh ths UGLY, SLIMY. GREASY-headed, LYING THUG

    LOCK THEM ALL UP

  49. rikyrah says:

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

    Story stays ever changing 😠😠

  50. majiir says:

    Trump’s mouthpieces in the WH are saying he had no knowledge of this meeting. Yeah, riiiight. I’m gonna believe that just like I believe that a man in a Santa Claus suit shows up at my house bearing gifts at Christmas. He didn’t attend the meeting, but there’s no way I’m buying that he didn’t know about it and approve of it. The meeting has Trump’s fingerprints all over it.

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