Kushner, Manafort, and Donald Trump Jr. met with Kremlin-linked lawyer during campaign

Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and their wives
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner; his then-campaign chair Paul Manafort; and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., met with a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, with ties to the Kremlin during the 2016 campaign, The New York Times reported Saturday. Trump Jr. and Kushner's attorney confirmed to NBC News the meeting took place on June 9, 2016, in Trump Tower in New York City.

Trump Jr. described the conversation as a "short introductory meeting" concerning a Russian adoption program. Alleged Russian election manipulation "was not a campaign issue at that time and there was no follow up. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by," he added. "I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.