The White House has been consistently denying any interaction with the Russian government since the investigation began. Now, Trump Jr. has come out with a new statement saying that he meant with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who claimed they’d have compromising information on Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. was informed through email that this was a Kremlin effort to aid Trump’s campaign. The meeting was set up by Emin Agalarov who has business connections with Trump and Putin. Following this statement, Trump Jr. has hired lawyers to represent him against the allegations. Their position is that Trump Jr. believed he was receiving information that could be damaging to Clinton, but it was from someone he knew and not from Russia. This statement creates a new legal battlefield with pressing issues. No longer is it about whether the public feels that this Russian investigation is worth attacking the President, but is about how the president’s inner circle will handle legal pressure. Americans voters may not care as much about the scandal, but the issue still stands. Not only are there legal issues there are also congressional investigations in the making with this new evidence of Russian interaction. Trump Jr. and the White House have been inconsistent in their story on the Russian involvement. It started with having no interaction whatsoever to a small, irrelevant interaction with a Russian lawyer. Trump Jr. even states that the president had no knowledge of the meeting, but this is highly unlikely as most of Trump’s most trusted were present at the meeting.
APPA Intern
Jamie Kim
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/07/11/daily-202-email-to-donald-trump-jr-could-be-a-smoking-gun-as-russia-connections-deepen/5963e8eee9b69b7071abcb06/?utm_term=.d3cffedc3181
