The 7 Most Important Things About The Trump-Russia Emails Donald Jr. Just Released

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The emails, which were also obtained by The New York Times and which were released by Trump Jr. shortly before the Times published its scoop, blow up the Trump team’s longtime story that they were unaware of Russian support for his campaign and did not seek it.

But that’s not all that’s noteworthy about the news. Here are the highlights:

1. The emails explicitly refer to “Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump” and show Trump Jr. agreeing to a meeting with a “Russian government attorney” to obtain documents from the Russian government.



The Trump administration and the president himself have repeatedly denied that anyone from his campaign had any contact with Russian officials. It’s not clear whether Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer, actually works for the Russian government. She has denied it. But the most important bit here isn’t her actual status — it’s what the Trump aides believed her status was.

The email explicitly claims that Veselnitskaya is a Russian government attorney who would be providing “official documents” that “incriminate Hillary” via a Russian government prosecutor. Trump Jr. and other top Trump advisers agreed to meet with her anyway.

2. Rob Goldstone, the British publicist who set up the meeting, offered to send information directly to Donald Trump via Trump’s secretary, Rhona Graff.



3. Trump Jr. forwarded the emails to Trump’s then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner.

Trump Jr. forwarded the email chain — which, remember, referred to providing “incriminating” information as part of “Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump” ― to Manafort and Kushner. This shows that top officials in the Trump campaign knew or should have known there was a Russian effort to support Trump’s campaign. But they never reported it.



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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-jr-russia-email-collusion_us_5964f4dae4b09b587d624b28

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1. Russian Dirt on Clinton? I Love It, Donald Trump Jr. Said

The June 3, 2016, email sent to Donald Trump Jr. could hardly have been more explicit: One of his father’s former Russian business partners had been contacted by a senior Russian government official and was offering to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton.

The documents “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” read the email, written by a trusted intermediary, who added, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

If the future president’s eldest son was surprised or disturbed by the provenance of the promised material — or the notion that it was part of a continuing effort by the Russian government to aid his father’s campaign — he gave no indication.

He replied within minutes: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

Four days later, after a flurry of emails, the intermediary wrote back, proposing a meeting in New York on Thursday with a “Russian government attorney.”

Donald Trump Jr. agreed, adding that he would most likely bring along “Paul Manafort (campaign boss)” and “my brother-in-law,” Jared Kushner, now one of the president’s closest White House advisers.

On June 9, the Russian lawyer was sitting in the younger Mr. Trump’s office on the 25th floor of Trump Tower, just one level below the office of the future president.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/us/politics/trump-russia-email-clinton.html