Donald Trump Jr.’s Evolving Statements
We now know that Donald Trump Jr., during the presidential campaign, met with a Russian lawyer offering information that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” And we now know that the president’s eldest son was less-than-forthcoming in his previous statements on the issue.
When he tweeted images of the email chain about that June 9, 2016, meeting, he said it was “in order to be totally transparent.” But that transparency came days after a misleading statement about the meeting and just as the New York Times was preparing to publish the emails.
Let’s take a look at Trump Jr.’s previous comments.
On July 8, the New York Times broke the story that Donald Trump Jr. had arranged a meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, “who has connections to the Kremlin.” The president’s son-in-law and now senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, then-campaign convention manager, also attended. Here’s what Trump Jr. told the Times about that meeting in a statement:
It was a short introductory meeting.
