Trump says he first heard of son's meeting with Russian lawyer a few days ago

In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, President Trump said he was not aware of his eldest son Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer in 2016 until a few days ago.

The meeting took place in his son's office one floor beneath his in Trump Tower, and was attended by Trump's campaign chairman at the time, Paul Manafort, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting after being promised incriminating evidence on his father's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, and Trump said he thinks "most people would have held that meeting." The New York Times broke the story on Saturday, and after his story changed about what they discussed — first Trump Jr. said it was just Russian adoptions, then he admitted on Sunday he was told the attorney would be sharing information on Clinton — Trump Jr. released his emails regarding the meeting just moments before the Times did.

Trump also told Reuters when he had his face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday, he spent the first 20 minutes discussing Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. "I said, 'Did you do it?' And he said 'No, I did not,'" Trump said. "I then asked him a second time in a totally different way. He said absolutely not."

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