Donald Trump Jr: I met with the Russians to learn about Clinton's fitness' for office

[GennGreymane]

http://www.businessinsider.com/donal...p-tower-2017-9

Donald Trump Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday that he agreed to meet with Russians who had promised his father's presidential campaign damaging information on Hillary Clinton because he wanted to assess Clinton's "fitness" and "qualifications" for office.

"To the extent they had information concerning the fitness, character, or qualifications of a presidential candidate, I believed that I should at least hear them out," Trump said in a statement provided to the committee — and obtained by The New York Times — before his closed-doors interview.

"Depending on what, if any, information they had, I could then consult with counsel to make an informed decision as to whether to give it further consideration."

Trump said in his initial statement after The Times broke the news of the meeting that he and a Russian lawyer primarily "discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children."

He did not mention in that statement, which was reportedly dictated by his father, that he had been offered compromising information about Clinton in exchange for taking the meeting or that the lawyer had been accompanied by Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin.

Upon learning earlier this summer that The Times was going to publish the full email chain leading up to the meeting, Trump released it himself on Twitter. The emails showed that he agreed to meet with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, at Trump Tower to discuss compromising information she said she had on Hillary Clinton.

"If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer," Trump told Rob Goldstone, the music publicist who pitched Trump on the meeting on behalf of his client Emin Agalarov.

Emin is the son of Aras Agalarov, a wealthy Russian-Azerbaijani developer who brought Donald Trump's Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013.

"As much as some have made of my using the phrase 'I love it,' it was simply a colloquial way of saying that I appreciated Rob's gesture," the younger Trump said in his prepared statement for the committee on Thursday.

Goldstone said in the emails last year that "the crown prosecutor of Russia" had "some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia."

Donald Trump Jr. said he "did not quite know what to make of his email" and had "no way to gauge the reliability, credibility, or accuracy of any of the things he was saying."

"As it later turned out, my skepticism was justified," he said. "The meeting provided no meaningful information and turned out not to be about what had been represented."

[Deleted]

What is new about this story?

[NYC17]

What is new about this story?

Adoption, or lack thereof.

[FlatBootyJudy]

http://www.businessinsider.com/donal...p-tower-2017-9

He met with a Lawyer who was Russian because she said she had dirt on Clinton, it was nothing illegal.

[GennGreymane]

He met with a Lawyer who was Russian because she said she had dirt on Clinton, it was nothing illegal.

okay, Endus.

[TZucchini]

it was nothing illegal.

You could do a better job at hiding your obvious broken English. What's the weather like in Russia today?

[Machismo]

So, does this mean they were lying about the lie regarding the previous lie that they were trying to hide?

[Rukh]

And he just essentially admitted guilt. He's got the worst fucking lawyers.

[FlatBootyJudy]

And he just essentially admitted guilt. He's got the worst fucking lawyers.

What is he guilty of? Meeting with a Russian lawyer who said they had dirt on Clinton, I wonder what law that one falls under?

[Edge-]

He met with a Lawyer who was Russian because she said she had dirt on Clinton, it was nothing illegal.

Wait, wasn't it about adoptions? Was he doing a background check before filing paperwork to adopt Hillary or something?

[Rukh]

What is he guilty of? Meeting with a Russian lawyer who said they had dirt on Clinton, I wonder what law that one falls under?

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/11/110.20


And this has nothing to do with being complicit in election tampering,being complicit in possible espionage against American voting infrastructure or at least failing to alert authorities, corruption (promising beneficial policy in exchange for goods) etc.

i.e. boy is fucked.

[Breccia]

And he just essentially admitted guilt. He's got the worst fucking lawyers.

He didn't have a lot of choice, did he? Taking the Fifth right now would probably cause worse damage. And it's not like the emails are secret, some dumb motherfucker put them on Twitter.

[Kujako]

He didn't have a lot of choice, did he? Taking the Fifth right now would probably cause worse damage. And it's not like the emails are secret, some dumb motherfucker put them on Twitter.

He could have lied again.

[Breccia]

He could have lied again.

I think he was under oath. Checking...well my bad, I guess not! Of course, lying to Congress is still a crime.

Wow, first Biden, now Coons. I have never been more proud to come from Delaware.

[cubby]

What is he guilty of? Meeting with a Russian lawyer who said they had dirt on Clinton, I wonder what law that one falls under?

Would it matter if we laid it out for you (again)? You don't care about reality, you're just pushing a hand-wave'ing agenda at this point. I mean, are you even aware that Donnie Jr has lied, multiple times, about whom he met with at that meeting. He can't even get his story straight about who was there. And now you insist we believe him about what was discussed?

At what point do you realize that maybe your view on this situation might need some updated facts?

[Breccia]

Just so everyone's clear on the subject: foreigners may not contribute something "of value" to a federal election campaign. This has included in the past such things as contact lists and polling data. This includes temporary residents, such as the lawyer in question, but not US citizens, which the lawyer was not.

Also, the lawyer's proven ties to the Russian government would make this suspicious even if she was a US citizen or permanent resident. Which she's not.

Trump Jr. recently testified that he did not remember talking about this with Trump, who the very next day promised to have a big negative information dump on Clinton. That big dump went golfing and tweeting never happened.

And I think we all remember the part where Team Trump denied any connection to Russia at all, between the time of this meeting and firing Flynn for working with Russia, but before firing Comey for refusing to say that the Russia case had no merit.

[Edge-]

Trump Jr. recently testified that he did not remember talking about this with Trump, who the very next day promised to have a big negative information dump on Clinton. That big dump went golfing and tweeting never happened.

Wasn't his promise about a press conference about Hillary actually the same day that Fredo confirmed the meeting?

[Breccia]

Wasn't his promise about a press conference about Hillary actually the same day that Fredo confirmed the meeting?

Within 24 hours, but I think it was the next day. It's kind of hard to keep the timeline right when everyone involved keeps changing their story, including re-writing the press release on Air Force One.

[Rukh]

And lest we forget, in an attempt to cover up the crime, Trump wrote a letter which his lawyer told him was a bad idea, but he did it anyways, instructing his son to lie and claim the whole thing was about adoption.

[Cthulhu 2020]

He met with a Lawyer who was Russian because she said she had dirt on Clinton, it was nothing illegal.

Lying under oath is pretty illegal.

"What'd he lie about?"

Go look at the past 5 ways he's tried to spin this meeting.

But not all of those were under oath, so I guess you could use that spin.

"Hey he was lying, but not under oath... at least not every time... so not VERY illegal!"