Newsdeck

Newsdeck

Son says didn’t tell Trump of Russia lawyer meeting

Donald Trump's eldest son said Tuesday he did not tell his father about meeting a Russian lawyer during the 2016 election campaign in which he had hoped to get compromising information on Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump Jr told Fox News that he did not bother to brief his father on his encounter with Natalia Veselnitskaya as it had been a “waste” of time — but wished he had handled things differently in hindsight.

Asked whether he had spoken to his father either before or after the meeting last June ion New York, he told the network’s Hannity show: “No. It was just a nothing. There was nothing to tell.”

“It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Donald Jr released a series of emails detailing an agreement to the meeting with Veselnitskaya after an intermediary had promised that it could yield “sensitive information” that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

“In retrospect I probably would have done things a little differently,” he said in the interview to Fox, acknowledging he had been hoping to learn damaging information about Clinton, his father’s Democratic challenger in last year’s presidential election.

“For me this was opposition research, they had something you know maybe concrete evidence to all the stories I’d been hearing about, probably under reported for years not just during the campaign so I think I wanted to hear it out,” he said.

“But really it went nowhere and it was apparent that wasn’t what the meeting was about.” DM

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

[%% img-description %%]

The Spy Bill: An autocratic roadmap to State Capture 2.0

Join Heidi Swart in conversation with Anton Harber and Marianne Merten as they discuss a concerning push to pass a controversial “Spy Bill” into law by May 2024. Tues 5 Dec at 12pm, live, online and free of charge.

A South African Hero: You

There’s a 99.8% chance that this isn’t for you. Only 0.2% of our readers have responded to this call for action.

Those 0.2% of our readers are our hidden heroes, who are fuelling our work and impacting the lives of every South African in doing so. They’re the people who contribute to keep Daily Maverick free for all, including you.

The equation is quite simple: the more members we have, the more reporting and investigations we can do, and the greater the impact on the country.

Be part of that 0.2%. Be a Maverick. Be a Maverick Insider.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options