NewsBite

Donald Trump Jr releases email chain about meeting with Russian lawyer

KNOWING the media had obtained his emails, Donald Trump Jr published them first. Now he’s in a lot of trouble.

Sam ClenchSam Clench
@SamClench
8 min read
July 12, 2017 - 10:05AM
The Significance of Donald Trump Jr.'s Russia Emails

DONALD Trump’s eldest son has publicly posted emails from the lead-up to his meeting with a lawyer connected to the Russian government, and hoo boy, they are explosive.

The New York Times had already obtained the emails in question and was preparing to publish their contents. When the newspaper approached him for comment, Donald Trump Jr chose to pre-empt the story by posting screenshots of the emails on Twitter.

The chain of messages is between Trump Jr and an acquaintance of his called Rob Goldstone, who set up the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, were eventually cc’d into the chain, and also attended the meeting.

THE EMAILS

“The crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” Mr Goldstone wrote on the morning of June 3, 2016.

“This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump.

“What do you think is the best way to handle this information, and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly? I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.”

Emin Agalarov, a Russian pop star, is a mutual friend of Mr Goldstone and Trump Jr whose father, Aras, is a real estate tycoon. The Times reports Aras Agalarov has close ties to Vladimir Putin, and helped President Trump take the Miss Universe pageant to Russia in 2013.

Donald Trump Jr. Pic: AFP
Donald Trump Jr. Pic: AFP

“Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first,” Trump Jr replied within 20 minutes. “Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially late in the summer. Could we do a call first thing next week when I am back?”

Four days later, Mr Goldstone proposed an in-person meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya, whom he described as a “Russian government attorney”. That meeting took place at Trump Tower on June 9, with Mr Kushner and Mr Manafort present.

Both of those men were also looped into the email chain, which bore the subject line “Russia — Clinton — private and confidential”. In his statements earlier this week, Trump Jr claimed neither of them knew what the meeting was about.

In a fresh statement today, Trump Jr downplayed the meeting and said Ms Veselnitskaya provided no dirt on Hillary Clinton.

“To everyone, in order to be totally transparent, I am releasing the entire email chain,” he said.

“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.

“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’.”

President Trump himself has barely commented on the meeting, but today applauded his son’s “transparency” in releasing the emails, calling him a “high quality person”.

Later, in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity - one of the president’s biggest supporters in the media - Trump Jr admitted he could have handled the situation better.

“It was just a nothing. There was nothing to tell,” he said of the meeting.

“Someone sent me an email. I can’t help what someone sends me,” he added. “I read it, I responded accordingly.”

Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. Pic: AP
Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. Pic: AP

THE REACTION

Thus far, Trump Jr’s attempts to shrug off the growing scandal have failed. The emails make it clear he attended the meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya despite knowing any information about Ms Clinton on offer likely came from the Russian government.

That certainly doesn’t prove there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia — an allegation still being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller. However it does suggest Trump Jr was willing to accept dirt on his father’s political opponent from a hostile foreign power, and that is a problem.

Speaking of Mr Mueller, CNN reports his investigators are now planning to examine Trump Jr’s emails and the meeting in question.

“This is sum of all fears stuff. It’s what we’ve all been dreading,” a White House official told The Daily Beast.

“There’s explicit, almost startlingly shocking detail in the emails that he posted to Twitter,” said ABC News reporter Rick Klein. “They are about as damning as you can imagine. They are the single biggest piece of evidence so far for those who are making a case for collusion.”

Former NSA officer John Schindler told the Washington Examiner the emails were “deeply troubling”.

“Considering that government (Russia) and its intelligence services are known by our spy agencies to have illegally and clandestinely aided in Trump’s election in 2016, the implications of this revelation are obvious and deeply troubling,” Mr Schindler said.

“We’ve never had a key person in any administration — a core person in Trump’s business empire and the current First Family — admit to collusion with a hostile foreign government in a presidential election.”

Meanwhile, the specific legal implications of Trump Jr’s actions are being hotly debated in the American media. MSNBC justice and security analyst Matthew Miller claimed Trump Jr may have already confessed to a crime.

Two Donald Trumps. Pic: AFP
Two Donald Trumps. Pic: AFP

“It’s a crime to solicit or accept anything from a foreign national in a campaign. It doesn’t have to be money,” he said. “It can be, potentially, accepting information. So he’s potentially confessing in his statement to committing a crime.”

Former Department of Justice prosecutor Paul Butler had a similar opinion.

“This is smoking gun evidence,” Mr Butler told MSNBC. “There is probable cause to charge Donald Trump Jr with a federal offence.”

Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman said the emails were “almost a smoking cannon” rather than a smoking gun, and told New York Post reporter Gabby Morrongiello “there’s no question this is treason”.

All of these excitable sentiments were echoed by Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential nominee, Tim Kaine — not exactly a neutral voice, it must be said.

“We’re now beyond obstruction of justice, in terms of what’s being investigated,” Mr Kaine told reporters.

“This is moving into perjury, false statements, and even potentially treason.

“They should’ve turned this over to law enforcement immediately. Instead they had this very, very troubling meeting. And this is just wheelbarrows full of new evidence for the special prosecutor and the Senate Intelligence Committee.”

Treason is obviously an extremely serious charge. Are President Trump’s critics overreaching by using the term? Yes, according to law professor Jonathan Turley, who appeared on Fox News to counter the dominant reaction to today’s news.

“The criminal code has defined elements to it. You don’t just find these ambiguous crimes. Some people have said this could be treason — for the love of God, treason is defined in the constitution. This is not treason,” Prof Turley said.

“I think that people need to take a breath.”

In any case, the political implications of Trump Jr’s emails are clearly damaging.

“There’s no escaping it — the Trump campaign’s inner circle met with an agent of a hostile foreign power to influence the outcome of an American election,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful Democrat in Washington DC. “One after another, senior Trump officials have been caught hiding secret meetings with Russian agents.”

Perhaps the most ominous reaction, from President Trump’s point of view, was that of Vice President Mike Pence, who transparently distanced himself the First Family.

“The Vice President was not aware of the meeting. He is not focused on stories about the campaign, particularly stories about the time before he joined the ticket,” Mr Pence’s spokesman said.

The president’s eldest son. Pic: AP
The president’s eldest son. Pic: AP

THE SHIFTING STORY

One of the most striking problems for Trump Jr is that his explanation for the meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya changed repeatedly as the media uncovered more information.

The president’s son — and senior Trump campaign staff such as Mr Manafort — spent months denying they had any contact with Russia during the election. Importantly, most of those denials were issued after Trump Jr was told Russia was trying to help Mr Trump win.

“It’s disgusting. It’s so phony,” Trump Jr said on July 24, more than a month after the meeting, when asked about allegations Russia was trying to interfere in the election to help his father. “I mean, I can’t think of a bigger lie.”

In March, he told the New York Times he didn’t participate in any campaign-related meetings with Russians.

“Did I meet with people that were Russian? I’m sure, I’m sure I did. 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,” he said.

On Saturday, when the New York Times first reported on his meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya, Trump Jr claimed he had discussed adoption policy with her.

“It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow-up,” he said.

“I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting beforehand.”

A day later, when the Times reported Trump Jr had known the meeting would involve potentially damaging information about Ms Clinton, he provided a little more information.

“The woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms Clinton. 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 elaborated.

Trump Jr implied he had no idea Ms Veselnitskaya was connected to the Russian government.

Trump associate Rob Goldstone, who set up the meeting. Pic: Instagram/robgoldstone
Trump associate Rob Goldstone, who set up the meeting. Pic: Instagram/robgoldstone

Finally, when he learnt the Times was about to publish the contents of his emails, Trump Jr decided to pre-empt the story and post them online himself. Those emails revealed he had known ahead of time that the supposed information about Ms Clinton came from the Russian government.

Trump Jr and his father both subsequently said he was publishing the emails himself to be “transparent”. That explanation was met with scepticism.

“His transparency came minutes after he had been made aware that the New York Times would be publishing the same emails he released,” said Fox News anchor Shepard Smith.

“Normally that word (transparency) wouldn’t be used in this circumstance,” he added. “Each change in explanation happened after the New York Times brought out more of this information.”

The big question here is obvious — why would Trump Jr omit key information about the meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya if he truly felt he had nothing to hide?

More related stories

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/donald-trump-jr-releases-email-chain-about-meeting-with-russian-lawyer/news-story/59f1ff4eb68edeb0a9284b18ad7f9612