(ANTIMEDIA) — In a move that surprised many, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted out the contents of an email exchange from June 2016 in which the president’s son was explicitly offered information that would incriminate Hillary Clinton “as part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump,” according to the emails.
Here is page 4 (which did not post due to space constraints). pic.twitter.com/z1Xi4nr2gq
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017
The email chain, titled “Re: Russia – Clinton – private and confidential,” contains communication between Donald Trump Jr. and music publicist Rob Goldstone. In it, Goldstone set up a meeting at Trump Tower with Trump Jr. and “Russian government lawyer” Natalia Veselnitskaya, along with then-campaign-manager Paul Manafort and Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The meeting was based on an offer, passed along by Goldstone on behalf of the Russian government, to provide Donald Trump’s campaign with incriminating evidence regarding Hillary Clinton. “If it’s what you say I love it,” Trump Jr. replied, according to the email he released.
Trump Jr. posted a statement along with the full email chain, claiming no information about Hillary Clinton was exchanged and that “the woman” simply wanted to discuss adoption policy regarding Russian children and American families.
Trump Jr.’s lawyer, Alan Futerfas, told the New York Times in an email on Monday that “his client had done nothing wrong but pledged to work with investigators if contacted.” Futerfas also seems to be completely unaware that his client explicitly and enthusiastically agreed to the meeting under the assumption that he would be receiving dirt on Hillary Clinton.
According to Futerfas:
“This is much ado about nothing. During this busy period, Robert Goldstone contacted Don Jr. in an email and suggested that people had information concerning alleged wrongdoing by Democratic Party front-runner, Hillary Clinton, in her dealings with Russia. Don Jr.’s takeaway from this communication was that someone had information potentially helpful to the campaign and it was coming from someone he knew. Don Jr. had no knowledge as to what specific information, if any, would be discussed.”
It appears he missed this part of the email from Goldstone:
“Good morning.
Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump Campaign with some official document and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.
“This is obviously very high-level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped along by Aras and Emin.”
There is a lot of speculation as to exactly what this revelation means. The emails don’t provide concrete evidence of collusion, however blatantly obvious the implication may be. They simply lay out that an offer had been made by someone claiming to represent the Russian government and a meeting had followed.
This latest publicity stunt is in line with the way the Trump administration has been using social media to keep mainstream media outlets chasing their tails. It certainly sends a clear message to the public: We could have done it if we wanted to, and we might have. What are you gonna do about it?
Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo