On Monday night, the Washington Post reported that President Trump provided his eldest son, Trump Jr., with a distinct response to a New York Times story about his 2016 meeting with a Kremlin lawyer. The NY Times report revealed that on June 9, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort held a meeting with a Kremlin lawyer at Trump Tower. The Post reported that President Trump discussed the report which they were aware would be published while he was at the G20 Summit.

Detailing reports of the meeting

That weekend, Trump Jr. had been asked by media outlets what the meeting was about where he claimed that it was over discussing adoption programs.

At the time that the NY Times report was published, it was not yet known that there were more people of vital importance at the meeting. It was also not yet known that the meeting was in fact about the Russian government offered to give the Trump campaign incriminating dirt on their rival candidate Hillary Clinton.

At the time, many reporters had already questioned why the meeting was about adoption programs despite the connection with Russian adoption and the Kremlin lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. She had helped lobby against the law passed by U.S. Congress that blacklisted and sanctioned Russian officials. Russia retaliated by banning the U.S. from adopting Russian children. Donald Trump Jr.

claimed that the meeting was to discuss which programs they could be a part of should they win the election.

President Trump defies legal advice

As the story developed throughout the week, the details of the meeting turned out to be everything but adoption programs and proof that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russian officials.

The Post further reported that President Trump spoke with his son from Air Force One to tell him how to respond to the report, despite other advice from his counsel. The plan was to original release a truthful statement in response to the story, but Trump decided otherwise.

The President's decision was a defiant one against his lawyer's advice.

When asked about this, one source said that his decision to put out a misleading statement was unnecessary. They also said that it opened the President up to criticism especially because the Trump administration is under investigation by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. According to Trump Jr's. Lawyer, Alan Futerfas, the creation of the statement was "communal," meaning that White House aides were involved in creating it.

That process has been pointed to as Trump creating more of a reason for the Special Counsel to scrutinize the involvement of others in his investigation on the Trump-Russian connection. Robert Mueller had reportedly submitted a request to the White House asking that they hold onto all information about the last year's meeting at Trump Tower. This week, it was also reported that Mueller had convened a grand jury taking his investigation to another level.
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