Donald Trump Jr. got in a tiny bit of heat yesterday when the New York Times reported that he had sough damaging information about Hillary Clinton during the campaign from sources associated with the Russian government.
Clearly whatever was in that email between him and the person organising a meeting with the source was a problem he wanted to get on top of. Before the NYT could release the obtained communications, Trump’s second ugliest son decided he would post ’em all up on Twitter.
Here’s my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017
Obviously the least damaging thing Trump Jr. could do would be to just go fully transparent and release the emails, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t anything in there that’ll raise eyebrows.
The emails are with music promoter Rob Goldstone, who tells the now-president’s son that he is in contact with “the crown prosecutor of Russia”, who is in possession of “official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia”.
(There is no ‘crown prosecutor’ of Russia, btw, but it probably refers to prosecutor general Yuri Chaika.)
Goldstone explicitly says that the “high level and sensitive information” is “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump.”
Of course, one could argue that Trump had no reason to believe that Goldstone wasn’t bluffing on that point, but by the same token it seems monumentally stupid to pursue the lead when you’ve got that kind of paper trail floating around. But then again, what do I know – I don’t look like the product of an unholy marriage of Richie Rich and a bathroom mop.
my god you’re greasy
Oh, and also: he replies to that comment 17 minutes later with something monumentally stupid and incriminating. “If it’s what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer.”
The senior Trump’s statement on this disclosure, delivered by spokesperson Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, was terse and to the point: “My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency.”
The meeting was eventually attended by Trump Jr, campaign boss Paul Manafort and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. As The Guardian points out, the formatting of the released emails suggests the entire chain was forwarded to Manafort and Kushner prior to the meeting.
Also according to The Guardian, an associate of Manafort said that the campaign chairman “claims not to have read to the bottom of the chain of emails forwarded to him” which is highly convenient, but also I barely ever read the content of email invites too, so whatever.
Look, it doesn’t look good for the two most famous people in the world named Donald Trump.
Source: The Guardian.
Photo: Getty Images.
