On Tuesday morning, Donald Trump Jr. publicly released emails he sent in June 2016 to set up a meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer. The content of these leaves no doubt that at least some in the Trump campaign knew that Russia supported their candidate and welcomed electoral aid from a foreign adversary.
“The crown prosecutor of Russia … offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and be very useful to your father,” publicist Rob Goldstone told Trump Jr.
“This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
“If it’s what you say I love it,” Trump said as part of his reply.
The emails, which Trump released on Twitter not long before the New York Times published them, further complicate the narrative the president’s son has been telling and amending since news of his meeting with the Russian lawyer came to light late last week. More importantly, it contradicts administration officials’ repeated claims that there was no contact between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the election. From campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway to the president himself, the message has been the same categorical denial: no campaign associates ever communicated with Russians trying to meddle in the election.
On Saturday, when the Times reported that the meeting had occurred, the younger Trump released a statement calling it a “short introductory meeting” in which they discussed “a program about the adoption of Russian children.”
On Sunday, the Times reported more: The meeting was set up explicitly to discuss information potentially damaging to the Clinton campaign. So Trump Jr. released another statement, admitting he had scheduled a meeting with an individual “who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign.” After it became clear she had “no meaningful information,” Trump said, he ended the meeting.
In both statements, Trump emphasized that he had not been told the individual’s name.
Administration officials spent Monday downplaying the story and attacking the media reporting it, saying there was no evidence anything untoward had taken place.
“The only thing I see inappropriate about the meeting was the people that leaked the information on the meeting after it was voluntarily disclosed,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.
And Kellyanne Conway told CNN’s Chris Cuomo: “You guys constantly vomit words like collusion and Russian interference and affecting the election, all of which you have no evidence.”
The newly released emails cast further doubt on these claims.
In a third statement, released in conjunction with his posting of the emails on Tuesday, Trump Jr. insisted that “the woman, as she has said publicly, was not a government official.” But he did deliberately set up a meeting with a woman whom Gladstone identified as “the Russian government attorney.” And his emails betray no surprise at Gladstone’s nonchalant reference to “Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the White House shut down repeated questions from reporters about the emails. Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders refused to offer any information beyond the following statement from the president: “My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency.”
Whatever Trump Jr. might have been aiming for by releasing the email conversation, and despite the president’s statement about “transparency,” all the the administration’s furtive, shifting statements on Russia make the administration look like an organization with something to hide.
