Trump Jr. says 'in retrospect,' he would have handled Russia meeting 'a little differently'


Donald Trump Jr. went on Hannity Tuesday night to discuss the meeting he had in June 2016 with a Russian attorney who promised compromising information on Hillary Clinton, announcing that with his release of emails regarding the incident, "this is all of it."
Trump Jr. said when he received an email from publicist Rob Goldstone saying the Russian government wanted to help Trump and had damaging information on Clinton, sirens didn't go off. "Honestly, I don't know, this was just basic information that was going to be possibly there," he said, adding, "I wanted to hear him out and play it out and see what happens. But people are trying to reach out to you all the time with this." Trump Jr. said he had been hearing "underreported" scandals about Clinton, and when it came to the information he was going to receive, "I didn't know if there was any credibility, anything behind it. I can't vouch for the information. Someone sent me an email. I can't help what someone sends me."
Trump Jr. said he entered the room not knowing who was going to be at the meeting, and after some small talk with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, the discussion turned to Russian adoptions, and he was only "listening as a courtesy to my acquaintance who set up the meeting. He apologized to me for wasting my time." Trump Jr., who said he did not tell his father about the meeting because "there was nothing to tell," believes Goldstone "goosed up ... there was some puffery to the email, perhaps to get the meeting, to make it happen. In the end there was probably some bait and switch to what it was supposed to be about." Looking back, "I probably would have done things a little differently," he concluded. "This was before the Russia mania, before they were building this up in the press. For me, this was opposition research, they had something, maybe concrete evidence to all the stories I'd heard about … it went nowhere."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sean Hannity, a vocal champion of President Trump, thanked Trump Jr. for answering "every question I could think of." A few questions Hannity wasn't able to come up with include why Trump Jr. didn't tell The New York Times on Saturday that the whole reason why he agreed to meet with Veselnitskaya was because he was promised information on Clinton (he admitted this on Sunday, when the Times broke the news), or if he had any insight into why just hours after he confirmed the meeting on June 7, 2016, his father said he'd hold a press conference in the next week to discuss "all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
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.
-
Why ‘anti-Islam’ bikers are guarding Gaza aid sites
In The Spotlight Members of Infidels MC, who regard themselves as modern Crusaders, among private security guards at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites
-
China: Xi seeks to fill America’s void
Feature Trump’s tariffs are pushing nations eastward as Xi Jinping focuses on strengthening ties with global leaders
-
Rebrands: Bringing back the War Department
Feature Trump revives the Department of Defense’s former name
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to Trump
Speed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raids
Speed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raid
Speed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'
Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearing
Speed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mount
Speed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers
-
Epstein accusers urge full file release, hint at own list
speed read A rally was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who are hoping to force a vote on their Epstein Files Transparency Act
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battle
Speed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants