Basically, here's Trump Jr.'s excuse for the Russian meeting:

[dixiegrrrrl]

‘My friends were wearing masks and they invited me to go to the bank with them, so I did, but I had no idea it was a bank robbery.’


Trump’s Son Met With Russian Lawyer After Being Promised Damaging Information on Clinton

The Times reported the existence of the meeting on Saturday. But in subsequent interviews, the advisers and others revealed the motivation behind it.

President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, according to three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.

The meeting was also attended by his campaign chairman at the time, Paul J. Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kushner only recently disclosed the meeting, though not its content, in confidential government documents described to The New York Times.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/07/09/us/politics/trump-russia-kushner-manafort.html?referer=https://t.co/KyaqGWOmFD

His first comments to The Times denied anything about Clinton. Now he is slowly telling more and more as he figures out his lies aren't working.

[rusty fender]

1. Boom!

[Vinca]

2. Guess he heard the masses laughing about the adoption story.

[Glimmer of Hope]

3. Gosh he could use better legal advice. Oh well.

[Voltaire2]

4. Next: arranging to adopt Chelsea Clinton.

In a stunning revelation Twitless admitted that when he said that the meeting was about damaging information on Hillary Clinton after first saying it was about a Russian adoption program, what he really meant was that he was arranging to adopt Chelsea Clinton through a special Russian program for adopting the daughters of presidential candidates.

[Hieronymus]

5. Hopefully, Jr. will face charges.

[flibbitygiblets]

6. Robert Mueller, our nation turns it's lonely eyes to you.

Please help us.

[oberliner]

7. He's already given up on Lie #1: It was a meeting about adoptions

Last edited Sun Jul 9, 2017, 09:19 PM - Edit history (1)

And has moved on to "It was a meeting to get dirt from the Russians on Hillary Clinton" - which is apparently perfectly OK?

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. I KNOW.....looks like he gets his brains from his Dad, huh?

Interestingly, he tweeted that same day something about Hillary...co-incidence?

He is like a 10 year old. Got found out, so he tells a weeee bit of a lie, then realizes that did not fool people, so comes back to "fix" the lie, with the old 'well, yes, it was about Clinton ..but we actually did not DO anything, so there" ....not realizing the meeting itself is all you need for collusion.

[oberliner]

14. Speaking of dad

He just tweeted that the cyber security task force thing with Russia that he announced yesterday was BS.

[patricia92243]

8. Thing 1 said it was about "adoption." Why would he need

the other two guys with him that just happen to be working with the Buffoon's campaign.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. And those other guys are Trump's son-in-law and his campaign manager

and yet Trump later denied even knowing Manafort and any role in the campaign.
Jared has always been described as Trump's right hand man, remember?

So according to Don Jr, he and Jared and Trump's then campaign manager went to Russia to meet with a lawyer but had NO idea what they were meeting about,
and THEN Don says that the offer to give dirty tricks re: Hillary was a smokescreen for the real meeting topic of...adopting children.

THIS...makes no sense.

"In a statement on Sunday, Donald Trump Jr. said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance. “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he said, “the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

He said she then turned the conversation to adoption of Russian children and the Magnitsky Act, an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers. The law so enraged President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that he retaliated by halting American adoptions of Russian children.

“It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting,” Mr. Trump said.

how could Hillary info be a Pretext for a meeting when he said he had no idea what the meeting was gonna be about?
And if you are then IN the meeting, there is no need for a pretext cause the meeting is now happening.

[sharedvalues]

9. Is this a setup for a pardon? Ollie North-style? Jr admits, Pres pardons?

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Dunno if they can think that far ahead...

but so far there are no charges of a crime, even tho Doofus Jr. has admitted to obstruction ( by lying in the first place) and collusion.
usually the trick is to get underlings to turn on bigger fish.
Interestingly, Twitler's attorneys almost instantly told the times that trump had no involvement or knowledge of the meeting.
so we are supposed to believe that a guy known for micro-managing, control freak that he is, had his son, in the middle of the campaign, go to Russian, and had NO clue?
nonsense.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. Just found better answer...

since the investigation involves the President, he cannot legally pardon one of his henchmen, basically.

[sharedvalues]

16. That is not resolved legally.

The Constitution says:
the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment".

So what does "except in cases of impeachment" mean? Does it mean only he can't pardon himself? Does it mean he can't pardon any crime related to the impeachable offense? When does an offence become impeachable, must articles of impeachment be proposed and/or passed?

All that is in murky legal water. If the president pardons his son, you can bet dozens of high powered lawyers will descend on the Supreme Court to argue both sides.

[Solly Mack]

11. K&R