President Donald Trump weighed in on the controversy surrounding Donald Trump Jr., his son, meeting with a Russian attorney in an attempt to obtain damaging information about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.
The controversy reached a boiling point on Tuesday when Trump Jr. tweeted an email chain detailing the planning of the meeting ahead of a New York Times report on the emails’ existence.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a “quick” statement from the president in light of the recent reports that came out over the weekend about Trump’s son.
“My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency,” Trump said in the statement.
Sanders declined to comment further, but she later added that Trump was “frustrated” that the media continues to report on meetings his campaign may have had with Russian officials during the campaign. The press briefing on Tuesday lasted 22 minutes, according to reports.
Deputy Press Sec. reads statement from President Trump on Donald Trump Jr.: “My son is high quality person and I applaud his transparency.” pic.twitter.com/b2Tzr9ymR1
— ABC News (@ABC) July 11, 2017
Sanders says she has spoken to Trump in last 24 hrs: “I would say that the president is frustrated with the process” re: Russia.
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) July 11, 2017
The email chain Trump Jr. tweeted detailed the orchestration of a meeting with a Russian lawyer. Former campaign chair Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, also attended the meeting.
Earlier this week the New York Times reported that Trump Jr. met with the lawyer on June 9, 2016, New York City’s Trump Towe. The email chain Trump Jr. tweeted on Tuesday confirmed that the meeting took place, and that the attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was identified to Trump Jr. as a “Russian government lawyer” who had incriminating evidence on Clinton obtained by the Kremlin.
The meeting, which Trump Jr. apparently believed would lead to the Trump campaign gaining damaging information about Clinton, is the first evidence that members of Trump’s campaign team was at least willing to seek help from Russian operatives during the election.
