Trump Aides Freaking Out Over Don Jr.'s Russia Email: The 'Sum Of All Fears'
The president’s eldest son is in some serious trouble and practically nobody in a position of power—including his dad—is rushing to his defense.
LACHLAN MARKAY
ASAWIN SUEBSAENG
07.11.17 1:03 PM ET
President Donald Trump’s son, his former campaign chairman, and his son-in-law were all told that the opposition research they were soliciting on campaign rival Hillary Clinton was coming from the Russian government, according to bombshell revelations made Tuesday morning.
In an email to Donald Trump Jr., a friend offered to connect the president’s eldest son to a “Russian government attorney” who could relay “very high level and sensitive information” as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
“I love it,” Trump Jr. responded in writing. He forwarded the email to campaign chief Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and one of his closest advisers.
The revelation of these emails immediately sent shockwaves through the White House.
“This is sum of all fears stuff. It’s what we’ve all been dreading,” said one White House official who is now exploring the possibility of retaining an attorney, a step described as purely precautionary.
The email chain, which Trump Jr. posted to Twitter on Tuesday ahead of a New York Times report detailing its contents, is the most concrete evidence to date that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian government agents to tip the election. It also severely complicates months of vehement White House denials that Trump or his associates ever contacted individuals affiliated with the Russian government—let alone worked with them to damage Clinton’s candidacy. The president and his aides have routinely written off media reports to that effect as “fake news” and attempts by Obama-era bureaucrats to tar the president through potentially illegal leaks to the press.
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