NYT: Trump Jr. met with Russian lawyer after being promised information on Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump Jr.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Donald Trump Jr. agreed in June 2016 to take a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer after being told he would receive compromising information about Hillary Clinton, multiple White House advisers told The New York Times.

The Times first reported on the meeting, which was also attended by Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's campaign chairman at the time, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on Saturday, but found out more about the motivation behind the meeting following additional interviews on Sunday. The meeting took place June 9 at Trump Tower, and is the first known private meeting with Russians involving Trump Jr. It's unclear if the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, gave any damaging information to Trump Jr., but he went to the meeting expecting that she would, the people who spoke with the Times said.

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On Saturday, Trump Jr. told the Times the meeting was just about Russian adoptions, and did not mention the promise of information on Clinton. He also said he asked Manafort and Kushner to attend the meeting, but did not tell them what it was going to be about. Veselnitskaya told the Times she "never acted on behalf of the Russian government" and "never discussed any of these matters with any representatives of the Russian government." A spokesman for Trump's legal team said "the president was not aware of and did not attend the meeting." The report comes as there are several federal investigations going on looking into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials before the election.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.