The New York Times seems to have pulled a rope-a-dope on Trump Junior. In their first bombshell, they drop the existence of a meeting with a Russian lawyer. So all their allies respond, “there’s NO WAY he knew she had any connections to the Russian government!!”
So then, the New York Times drops this new bombshell:
Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email.
The email to the younger Mr. Trump was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting. In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, but gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy.
BOOM? BOOM!! Kinda.
So IF this email exists – they admit it’s not in their possession – then it proves that Trump Jr. LIED about his meeting. And he was willing to collude with the Russian government to undermine Hillary. But, IF he wasn’t lying about what happened at that meeting, then the collusion didn’t happen, he was just willing to collude. With Manafort and Kushner in tow.
But… what if he WAS lying about what happened? Hmmm….
And some are pointing to this statement from Kushner:
Representatives for Mr. Kushner referred requests for comments back to an earlier statement, which said he voluntarily disclosed the meeting to the federal government. He has deferred questions on the content of the meeting to Donald Trump Jr.
Is he tossing Jr. under the bus to save himself?