Former Rare Staff
President Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. posted an email chain on Tuesday that he believed would clear him of alleged wrongdoing as relates to Russia and his father’s presidential campaign. Trump Jr. said he released the emails in “order to be totally transparent” about his meeting with a Russian lawyer with alleged ties to the Kremlin.
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Though he thought the emails would clear his name, journalists and observers quickly zeroed in on several passages that seem to confirm that Trump Jr. believed he was going to hear incriminating information on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that came directly from Russia.
“This is obviously very sensitive and very high level information but is part of Russia and it’s government’s support for Mr. Trump,” Â Trump Jr. was told by Rob Goldstone, an intermediary who arranged the meeting with the Russian lawyer.
“I love it,” Trump Jr. responded when told the Russians had dirt on Clinton.
As soon as the emails were published by Trump Jr., many raised the obvious question: why would the Trump campaign not contact the FBI if they were told that the Russian government was going to give them incriminating information on Clinton?
According to the New York Times, Trump Jr. was compelled to publish the emails after being told the Times was going to publish them.
Here's my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017
Here is page 4 (which did not post due to space constraints). pic.twitter.com/z1Xi4nr2gq
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017
