Donald Trump says his son is 'innocent' as he faces accusations of treason over email scandal - but Russia says it 'knows nothing'

President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his son Donald Trump Jr, describing him as "innocent" and portraying him as the victim of a witch hunt.

His intervention followed revelations in emails that showed his eldest son welcomed Russian help against his father's rival in last year's presidential election.

"My son Donald did a good job last night," Mr Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to a Fox News television interview by his son on Tuesday night.

"He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!"

But it came as the New York Times reported that Mr Trump Jr's initial comments on the story, published by the paper on Sunday, were drafted on board Air Force One and were signed off by the president.

That statement was vague and inconclusive, and did not draw a line under the story. Instead, it led to days of further damaging revelations.

It comes after Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's running mate in the election, said: "This is moving into perjury, false statements and even potentially treason.

"This should have set off alarm bells and red lights and instead, what it seemed to do is it activated their salivary glands. They should have turned this over to law enforcement immediately."

While experts have said his actions could not be categorised as treason, some attorneys say that the events described in the emails could amount to a conspiracy to break campaign finance law.

British music producer  helped set up Trump-Russia meeting

The emails have thrust Mr Trump Jr into the centre of a growing scandal over whether Trump's associates colluded with Moscow in its efforts to tilt the 2016 election in the Republican's favour.

Released on Tuesday, an email from British music producer Rob Goldstone to Mr Trump Jr claims an offer was allegedly made by Russia's general prosecutor to provide the Trump campaign with "official documents" on Mrs Clinton during a meeting with real estate mogul Aras Agalarov.

Mr Goldstone said the Russian prosecutor "offered to provide the Trump campaign" with "very high level and sensitive information" as "part of Russia and its government's support" for his father.

Mr Goldstone claimed to have been told by Mr Agalarov's pop star son Emin, whom he managed, to try and pass on the information. He later helped organise a meeting  on June 9, 2016 between a Russian lawyer and Mr Trump Jr to discuss the alleged information.

The Agalarov family has established ties to the Trumps and brought the future US leader to Moscow for the 2013 Miss Universe beauty competition.

Russia: These claims are 'wild'

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said on Wednesday it was "wild" that Mr Trump's eldest son was in hot water for the meeting.

"I learned with surprise that a Russian lawyer, a women, is being blamed and Trump's son is being blamed for meeting. For me, this is wild," said Mr Lavrov, during a visit to Brussels.

"Because when any person speaks to a lawyer, what problem or threat could be there? I didn't know about this, I learned about it from television." 

Mr Agalarov, the Russian businessman, has also denied his involvement.

"Emin is acquainted with him [Donald Trump Jr.], I am not," he said.

"The contacts took place at Miss Universe. 

"They [Emin and Donald Trump Jr.] are about the same age, I have no idea what they talked about.

"So, they talked about something, I don't know."

Natalia Veselnitskaya, the lawyer who met Mr Trump Jr, said she did not know at the time that it was Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort who had attended the same meeting. 

“I didn’t know who was going to be at that meeting, aside from being told that Donald Trump Jr. was ready to meet me," she said on Wednesday.

"I compared my recollections of the meeting with media reports and photographs and assume that the young man who left the meeting 7-10 minutes after it started was Mr Kushner [he never came back to the conference room by the way], and the man who was constantly reading something on his phone and I couldn’t quite understand why he was in the meeting at all, was Mr Manafort.”

Donald Trump and the Russian connections