Clinton blasts Don Jr.'s 'absurd lie' about Russian lawyer meeting
Hillary Clinton isn’t buying Donald Trump Jr.’s latest explanation for meeting a Kremlin-connected lawyer during the presidential campaign.
“It’s ridiculous,” Clinton said on NBC’s “Today” Wednesday. “It’s another absurd lie to cover up what really was going on, which I hope we uncover and understand.”
The June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer with ties to the Kremlin, was pitched to Trump Jr. as an opportunity to receive damaging information about Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
After originally asserting the meeting was about policies related to Americans’ adoption of Russian children, Trump Jr. eventually released the emails arranging the meeting where he said he’d “love” dirt on Clinton. President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort were also in attendance at the meeting.
The meeting is now under investigation by multiple congressional committees and special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump Jr. has maintained that no usable information came out of the meeting, but told Senate investigators he would have sought legal advice before acting on anything provided.
“To the extent they had information concerning the fitness, character or qualifications of a presidential candidate, I believed that I should at least hear them out,” Trump Jr. said, in a statement obtained by the New York Times. “Depending on what, if any, information they had, I could then consult with counsel to make an informed decision as to whether to give it further consideration.”
Clinton said in an interview with USA Today Monday she’s “convinced” there was collusion between Trump associates and Russia.
“There certainly was communication and there certainly was an understanding of some sort,” she said.
Clinton largely stepped away from the spotlight after her election loss, but is in the midst of a slew of media appearances promoting “What Happened,” her newly released memoir reflecting on the campaign.
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