It may surprise you to learn that there is more news about Donald Trump today. Yes, I’ll give you a moment to gather your bearings. I understand that this can be disorienting.
You might recall that there was some manner of consternation over the past few weeks about Donald Trump Jr and his alleged meeting with Russian contacts during the campaign to source dirt on Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr issued a statement during that brouhaha denying that the conversation had anything to do with the 2016 campaign.
This was later proven to be false when Trump Jr himself released the email chain which preceded the meeting – which showed that the conversation was very much about sourcing damaging intel on Clinton from a Russian government contact. Trump Jr maintains that he got nothing of use from that little chinwag.
The White House has confirmed that Donald Trump Sr played a role in formulating his son’s initial misleading statement, which claimed that the conversation was primarily concerning “a program about the adoption of Russian children”.
“He certainly didn’t dictate [the statement],” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “But … he weighed in, offered suggestion like any father would do.”
Uh huh. Of course, any kind of ‘weighing in’ on a deliberately false statement is probably something worth interrogating when it involves the President of the United States.
The Guardian reports that Richard Painter, ethics lawyer under George W. Bush (lol), says that Trump’s involvement very much constitutes an obstruction of justice.
You’re boxing in a witness into a false story. That puts them under enormous pressure to turn around and lie under oath to be consistent with their story. I think it’s obstruction of justice.
Of course, an ethics lawyer for George W. Bush pontificating on the ethics of false stories is a bit rich, but it’s an interesting thought nonetheless.
Anyway. Just another day in Trump’s America, folks.
