Trump helped craft son’s statement on Russia meeting, White House acknowledges
WASHINGTON – In a reversal, the White House acknowledged President Donald Trump offered what it said was fatherly advice to his eldest son about a statement explaining a June 2016 meeting with a Russian attorney believed to be bringing Kremlin-supplied dirt on Hillary Clinton. However, the president’s top spokeswoman said Tuesday the elder Trump did nothing wrong.
Trump’s team initially denied the president was personally involved in drafting the statement, but a Washington Post article published Monday evening – citing multiple sources – paints him as its primary author. Trump dictated the statement to Hope Hicks, one of his closest advisers, on Air Force One as he returned from a G-20 summit in Europe, according to the Post report.
One of the attorneys helping lead the president’s outside legal team, however, denied Trump played any role in crafting Trump Jr.’s statement, which the son later clarified, during a July 16 television interview.
“I do want to be clear – the president was not involved in the drafting of the statement and did not issue the statement,” Jay Sekulow told NBC News last month. “It came from Donald Trump Jr. It was, in fact, from him, and I believe it was his lawyer was in consultation.”
But less than 24 hours after the Post report was published, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders contradicted Sekulow’s account.
The president “weighed in and offered suggestions as any father would, based on the information he had,” Sanders told reporters Tuesday. Just what information was possessed at the time by Trump, who has said he only learned of the meeting a short time before details were made public by media reports, remains unclear, but likely will be sought by Justice Department special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
She referred to the Trump Jr. statement, which he and his personal lawyers sent with edits back to Air Force One, as containing no inaccurate statements.
Sanders described the parts of the Trump Jr. statement that the president has a hand in as “true.”
She then went on to blast the media, even dropping one of Trump’s favorite catchphrases: fake news.
“I think what the bigger question is: Everybody wants to try to make this some story about misleading. The only thing I’ve seen misleading is a year’s worth of stories that have been fueling a false narrative about this Russia collusion based on a phony scandal based on anonymous sources,” Sanders said.
“You guys are focused on a meeting that Don Jr. had of no consequence when the Democrats actually colluded with a foreign government,” Sanders added. “And if you want to talk further about a relationship with Russia, look no further than the Clintons, as we’ve said time and time again.”
Former Clinton campaign officials have denied reports that any senior campaign staffers had contacts with any individuals who had ties to the Kremlin. Some Republican lawmakers want a second special counsel to look into the alleged Clinton-Russia ties.