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President Donald Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., released an email chain Tuesday that shows his discussions regarding plans to hear damaging information about Hillary Clinton that were described as “part of Russia and it’s government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
The emails are the first documentary evidence that a high-ranking Trump associate took a meeting to unearth crucial information about Hillary Clinton with the understanding that it was tied to an effort from the Russian government to help Trump win the 2016 election. Trump Jr. was actively involved in his father’s presidential campaign.
In his Tweets on Tuesday, Trump’s oldest son said he was released the emails “in order to be totally transparent.” The emails with music publicist Rob Goldstone show that Trump Jr. was told that the Russian government held evidence that would “incriminate” Clinton.
Goldstone wrote that this information “would be very useful to your father.” He was attempting to set up a meeting between Trump Jr. and a Russian attorney that later occurred at Trump Tower.
“If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer,” Trump Jr. replied in one email. The messages are dated early June.
Trump Jr. has admitted that he met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya shortly after the email exchange during the presidential campaign. He reportedly believed he would be provided with damaging information on Clinton.
Veselnitskaya has denied any connection with the Kremlin in an interview with NBC News, and that she met with Trump Jr. to hand over sensitive information about Clinton. Instead, she maintains that their meeting was to discuss sanctions imposed on Russian officials.
“It is quite possible that maybe they were longing for such information. They wanted it so badly that they could only hear the thought that they wanted,” she said.
The disclosure of the meeting, which was also attended by Trump’s son-in-law and political adviser Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, has sparked new concerns about the Trump campaign’s potential connections to Moscow, which are being investigated by federal and congressional authorities.
One email suggests the information would pass from Russian hands to the Trump campaign through a billionaire with ties to the Kremlin: “The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras (Agalarov) 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. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped by Aras and Emin” Agalarov, Aras’ son.
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