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President Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., admitted Sunday to meeting last summer with a Russian attorney because she "might have information helpful to" his father's campaign.




The meeting was first reported by the 

 and occurred just weeks after Trump secured the GOP nomination. It was also attended by Trump's then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who would later briefly serve as campaign manager, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who now serves as a White House senior adviser.
Citing multiple sources, the 

reports that Trump Jr. "was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet" with the Kremlin-connected lawyer.


In a statement provided to NPR by the Trump Organization, the younger Trump confirmed the meeting in June 2016, but claimed the lawyer provided no useful information and eventually turned the subject toward policies on Russian adoption that had been curtailed in response to U.S. sanctions:

 for the meeting, focusing solely on the adoption issue. He later 

 the statements were contradictory, however:


On Monday morning, Trump Jr. admitted on Twitter the meeting had been initially about seeking information about Clinton.

The startling admission by President Trump's son is only the latest twist in the ongoing saga over Russian interference in the election and whether or not his campaign colluded with Russian officials. Multiple investigations are ongoing and include one by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, as well as investigations by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

 notes, the revelation of this meeting "points to the central question in federal investigations of the Kremlin's meddling in the presidential election: whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians. The accounts of the meeting represent the first public indication that at least some in the campaign were willing to accept Russian help."



The 

identified the Russian lawyer as Natalia Veselnitskaya, and the 

 reported that the intermediary who set up the meeting between her and Trump Jr. was Rob Goldstone, a music publicist.


Mark Corallo, a spokesman for President Trump's legal team regarding the Russia investigations, said in a statement that, "The President was not aware of and did not attend the meeting" between his son, Kushner, Manafort and the Russian attorney.


The news of this meeting comes just after President Trump returned from the G-20 Summit, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. Trump has 

 on whether or not Russia sought to meddle in last year's U.S. elections in an effort to help his campaign. Last week, Trump said, "I think it was Russia, and I think it could have been other people in other countries," and later backtracked, saying, "Nobody really knows for sure." However, those lukewarm statements are at odds with what Trump's own intelligence chiefs have testified before Congress, saying they are convinced it was Russia.
On Sunday, Trump took to Twitter saying that he "strongly pressed" Putin on the election accusations, which the Russian president "vehemently denied." Seemingly accepting Putin's assurances, Trump said it was now time "to move forward in working constructively with Russia," including a joint cybersecurity effort that was derided by members of the president's own party. Later Sunday evening, Trump walked back that idea.  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


In a previous version of this story, a passage from 

 misquoted Donald Trump Jr.'s statement as saying the Russian adoption issue "was a campaign issue at the time." 

The Times has since corrected the quotation

 to read it "was not a campaign issue at the time."

Politics and Government News

President Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., admitted Sunday to meeting last summer with a Kremlin-connected Russian attorney because she "might have information helpful to" his father's campaign.

Trump son admits to meeting Russian lawyer with offer of 'helpful' info for campaign

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