Trump Jr. Releases Email Chain That Confirms He Knew Russian Lawyer Was Kremlin-Connected
THE SMOKING EMAIL
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​On Saturday, The New York Times reported that Donald Trump Jr., Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and Trump son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner met with the Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer Natlia Veselnitskaya two weeks after Donald Trump won the Republican nomination. 

The original story is full of controversial and seemingly incriminating details, but the fallout from the story has been even more explosive. Here's what you need to know.

This post has been updated with breaking news. Updates appear at the bottom in chronological order.

Saturday's Story Detailed The Conversation Democrats Have Been Speculating On For Months

The original story details a conversation between top members of the Trump campaign and a Russian lawyer and lobbyist know for pushing the Kremlin's agenda in the US. The Trump team admitted to the Times that they discussed US foreign policy in the meeting. President Trump and his team have repeatedly denied meeting with Kremlin officials or "cutouts" during the campaign.

Representatives of Donald Trump Jr. and Mr. Kushner confirmed the meeting after The Times approached them with information about it. In a statement, Donald Jr. described the meeting as primarily about an adoption program.

The lawyer is known for spearheading the Russian campaign against The Magnitsky Act.

The Russian lawyer invited to the Trump Tower meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya, is best known for mounting a multipronged attack against the Magnitsky Act, an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers.

In a statement to The Times, Veselnitskaya said the meeting lasted 30 minutes and the group discussed the Magnitsky Act and adoption (in a later interview with NBC, she said Trump Jr. asked her for financial information connecting the DNC to Russians, which she didn't have). Veselnitskaya denies connections to the Russian government, but in the story, The Times documents extensive family and business connections to The Kremlin.

One of Ms. Veselnitskaya's clients is Denis Katsyv, the Russian owner of a Cyprus-based investment company called Prevezon Holdings. He is the son of Petr Katsyv, the vice president of the state-owned Russian Railways and a former deputy governor of the Moscow region.

In a statement to The Times, Trump Jr. downplayed the meeting, saying "It was a short introductory meeting." Later, Mark Corallo, a spokesman for the president's lawyer, gave a statement that Veselnitskaya's team "misrepresented who they were."

After President Trump's election, Trump Jr. told The New York Times that he did not participate in any scheduled sit downs with Russian foreign nationals for the campaign, and that he did not discuss foreign policy with any Russians during the campaign.

The White House Tried To Spin The Meeting As A Setup By Democrats

On Sunday, Reince Priebus and Corallo told various outlets that they believed the meeting was a setup. Priebus told Fox News Sunday that the "the individual that set up the meeting may have been" associated with Fusion GPS, the DC strategy firm behind the Trump dossier that claims Russia has blackmail-worthy intelligence on Donald Trump. Later, Corallo claimed that team Trump had confirmed the connection:

Specifically, we have learned that the person who sought the meeting is associated with Fusion GPS, a firm which according to public reports, was retained by Democratic operatives to develop opposition research on the President and which commissioned the phony Steele dossier.

Fusion GPS flatly denied any knowledge or connection to the meeting.

On Sunday, The Times Reported That Trump Jr. Was Promised Dirt On Clinton In The Meeting

In a report even more damaging than the first, The Times reported that three sources confirmed that Trump Jr. was promised damaging secrets on the Clinton campaign before the meeting.

It is unclear whether the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, actually produced the promised compromising information about Mrs. Clinton. But the people interviewed by The Times about the meeting said the expectation was that she would do so.

In another stunning admission to The Times, Trump Jr. added to and changed his previous account of the meeting, saying that Veselnitskaya did in fact offer secrets to him and his colleagues, and that the meeting was arranged by a friend from the Miss Universe pageant (squashing Reince Priebus' narrative):

In a statement, he said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant… "After pleasantries were exchanged," he said, "the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs. 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."

Trump Jr. then confirmed to The Times that the original purpose of the meeting was to intercept secrets about the Clinton campaign:

He said she then turned the conversation to adoption of Russian children and the Magnitsky Act… "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," Mr. Trump said.

Stunningly, Kellyanne Conway used the same logic to dismiss the meeting in an interview with George Stephanopoulos, saying "no information was received that was meaningful or helpful." She denied that Trump Jr.'s acceptance of the meeting was an attempt at collusion.

A spokesman for the President's lawyer distanced the President from the meeting, saying that Donald Trump was not aware of the meeting. Donald Trump Jr. told The Times that Kushner and Manafort were not aware of the expected substance of the meeting before it occurred. 

The Washington Post Later Reported That The Meeting Was Arranged By Music Publicist Rob Goldstone

The Washington Post reported that the meeting was not arranged by Fusion GPS, but instead set up by music publicist Rob Goldstone (update: Goldstone confirmed this fact for the Associated Press on Monday), manager to a Russian pop star connected to Miss Universe and the Trumps:

Goldstone has been active with the Miss Universe pageant and works as a manager for Emin Agalarov, a Russian pop star whose father is a wealthy Moscow developer who sponsored the pageant in the Russian capital in 2013.

In March, Agalarov told Forbes that he has remained in contact with the Trump family and specifically exchanged messages with Donald Trump Jr. as recently as January. He also claimed that his family had a Trump Tower business deal that would have moved forward if Trump hadn't run for office.

Donald Trump can be found in a cameo in Emin's video below:

 

Trump Jr. Has Retained A Criminal Defense Lawyer, And Could Now Face Federal Charges

Politico reports that in the wake of the stories, Trump Jr. has retained Alan Futerfas as his defense attorney on Russian matters. Attorneys and politicians from across the political spectrum say that Trump Jr.'s actions break the typical campaign mold and open him and the Trump administration up to legal liability.

Former White House ethics lawyer for George W. Bush, Richard Painter, called Trump Jr.'s acts "treason." 

Norm Eisen, another former White House ethics attorney, told Politico that Trump Jr. may have violated the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from interfering with US diplomacy.

Update: Trump Jr. Was Warned That Expected Clinton Information Was Part Of Russian Mission To Help His Father

Late Monday evening, The New York Times published another bombshell report alleging that Donald Trump Jr. received an email ahead of his meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya warning him that the damaging information about Clinton that he would receive was from the Kremlin. 

The email to the younger Mr. Trump was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting… Mr. Goldstone's message, as described to The New York Times by the three people, indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information. It does not elaborate on the wider effort by Moscow to help the Trump campaign.

Despite the warning, as we now know, Trump went ahead with the meeting and received the damaging information.

Update: Trump Jr. Releases 'Entire Email Chain' With Rob Goldstone, Confirms Times Story

In an effort to calm the brewing storm of controversy around him, Donald Trump Jr. has released "the entire email chain" of his emails with music producer Rob Goldstone, who brokered Trump Jr.'s meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya.

In the emails, Goldstone portrays Veselnitskaya as "the Russian government attorney" and calls outreach "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump," which confirms Monday evening's story that reported that Trump Jr. knew that Veselnitskaya was coming with information most likely sourced from the Russian government.

 

 

Minutes after Trump Jr. released the emails on his Twitter, The New York Times published a story based on access to similar emails. According to CNN's Brian Stelter, The Times reached out to Donald Trump Jr. for comment before publishing their piece. Trump Jr. reportedly asked for more time, and then published the emails himself.

 

Tuesday afternoon, President Trump released a statement on the matter, saying "My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency."

<p>Benjamin Goggin is the News Editor at Digg.&nbsp;</p>

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