President Donald Trump’s eldest son changed his account over the weekend of a meeting he had with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, saying on Sunday that the woman told him she had information about Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
A statement from Donald Trump Jr. one day earlier made no mention of Ms. Clinton. In his initial depiction of the meeting last June, the President’s son said the discussion focused on a disbanded program that used to allow American adoptions of Russian children.
It appeared that Trump Jr. shifted his account of the meeting after being presented with additional information from The New York Times , which first reported both the discussion and the prospect of negative information about Ms. Clinton.
The meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya is the earliest known private meeting between key aides to the president and a Russian. Federal and congressional investigators are probing whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia to meddle in the presidential election, investigations the president has called a “hoax”.
Kushner also present
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and White House senior adviser, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting with Ms. Veselnitskaya. The Times , citing advisers to the White House who were briefed on the discussion, said that Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting with the lawyer after being promised damaging information about Ms. Clinton.
In his statement on Sunday, Trump Jr. said he was asked by an acquaintance he knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant to have a meeting with a person he was told might have information that would be “helpful” to the Trump campaign. He said he was not told the name of the person ahead of the meeting.
Trump Jr. said the attorney claimed during the discussion to have information that “individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee” and supporting Ms. Clinton.
“No details or supporting information was provided or even offered,” Trump Jr. said. “It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”
On Saturday, Trump Jr. had described the same gathering as a “short introductory meeting” during which the three discussed a program that used to allow U.S. citizens to adopt Russian children. Russia ended the adoptions in response to American sanctions brought against the nation following the 2009 death of an imprisoned lawyer who spoke about a corruption scandal.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team, said only, “The president was not aware of and did not attend the meeting.”
