United States President Donald Trump helped his son, Donald Trump Jr., with the statements he was going to give out regarding the meeting with the Russian lawyer. This report was just confirmed by the White House. This information came amid the FBI investigation regarding the president and his aides, who possibly had a talk with Russian hackers in order to interfere with the November presidential election.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders releases statement
According to The Guardian, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the president weighed in like any father would.
Trump’s attorney, Jay Sekulow, claimed that the president was not involved at all but Sanders said that the statement that Donald Jr. issued was true and that the president did get involved but only used the “limited information that he had” on the meeting with the Russian lawyer.
Donald Jr. said in his statement that the meeting with the Russian lawyer was about the damaging information that the attorney offered them regarding Clinton. However, after the meeting, Donald Jr. and the other Trump aides did not receive such information, as the attorney only talked about adoption. The other people with Donald Jr. were Jared Kushner, now a senior adviser at the White House, and former campaign manager Paul Manafort.
The lawyer was identified as Natalia Veselnitskaya and the meeting took place in June of 2016.
Sanders also said that the president did not dictate the statements he was to release but weighed in and suggested what should be placed in the announcement. The White House also continues to deny that Trump had knowledge of the meeting despite being in the same area that day.
Donald Jr.’s team wanted to release a truthful statement
According to CNN, sources said that the original plan was to release a truthful statement. However, the president offered to release a statement saying that Donald Jr. only met with the Russian lawyer to discuss the adoption of Russian children. Accordingly, Trump pitched the idea while on their way back to Washington from the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
Sources also told CNN that one of the advisers of Trump said the idea of the president was not necessary and it could result in a backlash. Trump reportedly disregarded the advice.
Expert weighs in on latest Trump backlash
Richard Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said that he believes that what happened regarding Trump advising to spin the truth is an obstruction of justice. Painter pointed out that Trump drafted a knowingly false statement for his son, who could be one of the witnesses in the Russian probe, making it a possible Obstruction Of Justice.
An associate dean at Yale law school, Asha Rangappa, also commented on the latest report. Rangappa said that Trump’s idea to make a misleading statement regarding the meeting with the Russian lawyer might seem like the president is covering up something “that may tie his campaign to the Russians.”
The president himself has not released a statement.
