WASHINGTON
— If President Trump emerged from his meeting with President Vladimir
V. Putin of Russia last week hoping he had begun to “move forward” from
the controversy over the Kremlin’s election meddling, as advisers put
it, his flight home the next day made clear just how overly optimistic
that was.
As
Air Force One jetted back from Europe on Saturday, a small cadre of Mr.
Trump’s advisers huddled in a cabin helping to craft a statement for
the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to give to The New York
Times explaining why he met last summer with a lawyer connected to the
Russian government. Participants on the plane and back in the United
States debated how transparent to be in the statement, according to
people familiar with the discussions.
Ultimately, the people said, the president signed off on a statement from Donald Trump Jr. for The Times
that was so incomplete that it required day after day of follow-up
statements, each more revealing than the last. It culminated on Tuesday
with a release of emails
making clear that Mr. Trump’s son believed the Russian lawyer was
seeking to meet with him to provide incriminating information about
Hillary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr.
Trump.”
The
Russia story has become the brier patch from which the president
seemingly cannot escape. It dominated his trip to Europe last week and,
after he leaves on Wednesday night for a couple of days in France, it
may dominate that trip as well. Every time Mr. Trump tries to put the
furor behind him, more disclosures thrust it back onto the Washington
agenda.
Continue reading the main story
Even
before the latest reports, Mr. Trump’s head-spinning willingness on
creating a joint cybersecurity team with Russia fueled criticism. Now
people close to the president and to his legal effort are engaged in a
circular firing squad, anonymously blaming one another for the decisions
of the last few days.
The
emails, which the younger Mr. Trump released after learning that The
Times had obtained copies and was about to publish them, undercut the
president’s line of defense in the Russia inquiry. For months, Mr. Trump
has dismissed suspicions of collusion between Russia and his team as
“fake news” and a “total hoax.” His eldest son, likewise, had previously
asserted that talk of collusion was “disgusting” and “so phony.” Donald
Trump Jr. said in a Fox News interview that he would have done things
differently in retrospect, but he maintained he had done nothing
improper.
At
a minimum, however, the emails show that the younger Mr. Trump was not
only willing, but also eager, to accept help advertised as coming from
the Russian government. “I love it,” he wrote.
Joining
him at the meeting with the Russian lawyer in June 2016 were Jared
Kushner, his sister’s husband and now a senior White House adviser, and
Paul J. Manafort, then the campaign chairman and a veteran political
operative with longstanding ties to a pro-Russia party in Ukraine. Both
the younger Mr. Trump and the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya,
have said in recent days that no incriminating information about Mrs.
Clinton was actually passed along during the meeting at Trump Tower, but
that Ms. Veselnitskaya did discuss American sanctions imposed on
Russian human rights offenders.
In
the Fox News interview on Tuesday night, the younger Mr. Trump said
that Mr. Kushner left the meeting a few minutes after it began.
While
Donald Trump Jr. has been the main focus of the controversy because he
set up the meeting, Mr. Kushner faces potential trouble because he
currently works in the White House and neglected to mention the
encounter on forms he filled out for a background check to obtain a
security clearance.
Follow Donald Trump Jr.’s Russia Email Trail
Donald Trump Jr. received an email on
June 3, 2016, promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. The information was
described as being part of Russia's support for his father’s
presidential bid. His reply? “I love it.”
By Drew Jordan on Publish Date July 11, 2017.
Photo by Sam Hodgson for The New York Times.
Watch in Times Video »
The
emails were discovered in recent weeks by Mr. Kushner’s legal team as
it reviewed documents, and the team amended his clearance forms to
disclose it, according to people briefed on the developments, who like
others declined to be identified because of the sensitive political and
legal issues involved.
Similarly,
Mr. Manafort recently mentioned the meeting to congressional
investigators looking into possible collusion, according to the people
briefed on the matter.
The
disclosure of the emails left the White House again on the defensive as
tension inside the president’s orbit has grown. Mr. Trump is
exasperated and, at the urging of advisers, he said nothing publicly in
defense of his son until Tuesday, when he issued a one-sentence
statement. “My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his
transparency,” Mr. Trump said. Hours later, he added on Twitter that his son was “a great person who loves our country!”
Advisers
said the president was annoyed not so much by his son as by the
headlines. But three people close to the legal team said he had also
trained his ire on Marc E. Kasowitz, his longtime lawyer, who is leading
the team of private lawyers representing him. Mr. Trump, who often
vents about advisers in times of trouble, has grown disillusioned by Mr.
Kasowitz’s strategy, the people said.
The
strain, though, exists on both sides. Mr. Kasowitz and his colleagues
have been deeply frustrated by the president. And they have complained
that Mr. Kushner has been whispering in the president’s ear about the
Russia investigations and stories while keeping the lawyers out of the
loop, according to another person familiar with the legal team. But one
person familiar with Mr. Kasowitz’s thinking said his concerns did not
relate to Mr. Kushner.
The
president’s lawyers view Mr. Kushner as an obstacle and a freelancer
more concerned about protecting himself than his father-in-law, the
person said. While no ultimatum has been delivered, the lawyers have
told colleagues that they cannot keep operating that way, raising the
prospect that Mr. Kasowitz may resign.
Also,
the president has fumed to close allies that he is mulling a staff
change, and some members of his family have zeroed in on the chief of
staff, Reince Priebus. But most Trump advisers privately concede that
major changes are unlikely anytime soon.
The
developments provoked sharp criticism by Democrats and even some
Republicans. “Nothing’s proven yet, but we’re now beyond obstruction of
justice in terms of what’s being investigated,” Senator Tim Kaine,
Democrat of Virginia and Mrs. Clinton’s running mate last year, said on
Tuesday. “This is moving into perjury, false statements and even
potentially treason.”
Republicans
in Congress made little effort to defend the White House, and some
expressed concern. “I voted for @POTUS last Nov. & want him &
USA to succeed, but that meeting, given that email chain just released,
is a big no-no,” Representative Lee Zeldin, Republican of New York, wrote on Twitter, using the acronym for president of the United States.
The
White House rejected the criticism. Asked about the use of the term
“treason,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the principal deputy White House
press secretary, said, “I think those new words are ridiculous.”
Mr.
Trump’s son and the president’s defenders said that once again, the
fuss was unwarranted. “Media & Dems are extremely invested in the
Russia story,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter. “If this nonsense meeting is all they have after a yr, I understand the desperation!”
Other
defenders of Mr. Trump have tried to minimize his campaign’s dealings
with Ms. Veselnitskaya by arguing that they are similar to the
interactions between Ukrainian government officials and a Democratic
Party consultant who sought damaging information about Mr. Trump and his
associates, including Mr. Manafort, during the campaign.
On a recent program, the Fox News host Sean Hannity, who is close to Mr. Trump, read from a January article in Politico
revealing the Democratic operative’s meetings with Ukrainian officials
in the country’s Washington embassy. “Where is the outrage over this?”
Mr. Hannity demanded.
Inside
Mr. Trump’s team, the response to the developments has become a subject
of intense dispute. Three people familiar with his son’s account said
he pushed to offer a full explanation on Saturday when first contacted
by The Times about the meeting, and said he agitated to be allowed to
defend himself publicly. But three other people involved in the
discussions offered a completely contrary version of events, insisting
that the younger Mr. Trump adamantly resisted an expansive disclosure.
Elsewhere,
Mr. Kasowitz was working separately to inform an article being prepared
by Circa, a news outlet the White House considers favorable, instead of
The Times. According to the person close to the legal team, Mr.
Kasowitz was kept out of the discussion about Donald Trump Jr.’s initial
statement and saw it only after it had been published online in the
first Times article.
The
original statement, drafted aboard Air Force One by advisers and then
approved by Mr. Trump, said only that the Russian lawyer had discussed
adoption policy during the meeting, without mentioning that the meeting
had been offered as a chance to provide information about Mrs. Clinton’s
dealings with Russia. Only after The Times followed up in preparation
for another article did the younger Mr. Trump issue a second statement
acknowledging that.
On Tuesday, the Trumps projected a united front.
“This is the EXACT reason they viciously attack our family!” Eric Trump, the president’s second-oldest son, posted on Twitter. “They can’t stand that we are extremely close and will ALWAYS support each other.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment