Why Did Donald Trump Jr. Meet With A Russian Lawyer?

President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign, because the official might have had damaging information about the Hillary Clinton Campaign, a Sunday report from the New York Times said.

Trump Jr., who worked for his father’s campaign, was asked about the meeting before the Times was aware that it involved possible information about Clinton.

He confirmed the meeting and said it was about U.S.-Russia adoption issues, not mentioning Clinton. Once the Times found out that the meeting was set up under the premise of discovering damaging Clinton information, Trump Jr. changed his explanation.

In a statement on Sunday, Trump Jr. confirmed the Times report.

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“I was asked to have a meeting … with an individual who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign. I was not told her name prior to the meeting. I asked Jared (Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law) and Paul (Manafort, then campaign manager for Trump) to attend, but told them nothing of the substance. We had a meeting in June 2016,” said Trump. Jr. “After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton.”

Trump Jr. added the information was unclear, and that the lawyer’s real attention was about an adoption law.

“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,” continued Trump Jr. in his statement. “She then changed subjects and began discussing the adoption of Russian children and mentioned the Magnitsky Act. 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.”

The lawyer was identified as Natalia Veselnitskaya. The Magnitsky Act was a bill punishing Russian officials who were responsible for the death of a Russian auditor, Sergei Magnitsky, after he was imprisoned because of a fraud investigation. In return, Russia banned the U.S. adoption of Russian children.

The meeting took place June 9, 2016, just after Trump won the Republican nomination for president.

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Kelleyanne Conway, counselor to the president, went on CNN Monday morning to deny that Trump has any knowledge of his son’s meeting. Other Trump associates have echoed that sentiment, including his outside counsel. Trump Jr. had previously denied that he met with any Russians in an official capacity for the campaign.

The revelation comes amid investigations into any possible collusions between the Russian government and the Trump campaign by both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and the Justice Department led by a special counsel.