
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally Thursday Aug. 2 2018 at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre Pa
President Trump has admitted that the goal of a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower between a Kremlin-connected lawyer and Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., was to get dirt on Hillary Clinton.
President Donald Trump on Sunday appeared to change his story about a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that is pivotal to the special counsel's investigation. Trump claimed that the meeting was "totally legal and done all the time in politics", adding that he had no knowledge about it at the time.
He concluded by further distancing himself from the meeting his son arranged, writing, "I did not know about it!"
And as Trump and his allies have tried to discredit the probe, a new talking point has emerged: that even if that meeting was held to collect damaging information, none was provided and "collusion" - Trump's go-to description of what Mueller is investigating - never occurred. They described the statement, which had not mentioned that the Russian lawyer was expected to bring damaging information about Clinton, as "short but accurate".
But here's the thing: This is a tweet about how the Trump Tower meeting was totally fine - nothing illegal to see here.
On Sunday morning, Trump responded to reports in the Washington Post and on CNN that he was concerned Donald Jr. could be in legal trouble.
While Trump has claimed since taking office that "no collusion" occurred between his campaign and Russia and that Mueller was conducting a "witch hunt", Trump's acceptance of Russian help has been out in the open since the final month of the 2016 campaign.
Donald Jr initially said in a statement to The New York Times that the meeting was "primarily" about American adoptions of Russian children.
On Sunday, US media including the Washington Post, CNN and AP reported that Mr Trump was anxious Donald Trump Jr could be in legal trouble because of the 9 June 2016 meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya.
Manafort is now on trial for unrelated bank and tax fraud charges as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, and Sekulow said that to his knowledge, Trump Jr.is not the target of a federal probe stemming from the meeting.
Any legal battle over whether the president can be forced to testify could go all the way to the US Supreme Court, the lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said on ABC's This Week show. "When you look at a meeting, George, that took place ... now two years ago, the question is, 'What law, statute or rule or regulation's been violated?' Nobody's pointed to one".
The president's past comments decrying the press as an "enemy of the people" have incited anger among supporters at Trump rallies, and have been condemned by the United Nations as "strategic" and non-factual attacks that "increase the risk of journalists being targeted with violence".
In another, he expressed frustration with both the media and Mueller's probe.
Trump called the Post report "a complete fabrication".
Recommended News
-
Ohio State Puts Urban Meyer on Paid Administrative Leave
Koffel said Wednesday that Smith never informed Meyer about the criminal-trespass charge even after Koffel told Smith to do so.Thousands more evacuated from California's largest wildfire - International
But two years ago, only 13,000 acres were burned while the previous three years each saw only around 3,000 acres burned. A home at the bottom of the hill was surrounded by fire trucks, with flames just outside its back yard.Trump EPA Rolls Back Obama-Era Fuel Economy Standards
More than a dozen states follow California's standards, amounting to about 40 percent of the country's new-vehicle market. Yet for President Donald Trump , who's prioritized eliminating regulations, the auto rules represent a grand prize. -
Cleveland Browns: Just how bad have first-round picks been?
Returning starter Zay Jones is coming off right knee and shoulder surgery and was cleared for practice for the first time Sunday. Cleveland traded Corey Coleman , the team's first round pick in 2016, to the Buffalo Bills for a 7th round pick in 2020.Northern California wildfire created destructive tornado
The fire burning near Redding has grown to 206 square miles (533 square kilometers) and destroyed at least 1,060 homes. Varney's radio wasn't communicating with headquarters, so his assistant relayed messages - until they lost contact.NRC Assam issue sends political temperatures soaring
Assam is the only Indian state to conduct a citizenship verification exercise on such a massive scale. A lot of them settled in Assam, which has a near-270 km (165-mile) border with Bangladesh. -
Girl, 4, dead after being thrown into Florida river
Search and dive teams responded immediately and found the body of a young girl approximately 30 minutes after the initial report. A GoFundMe page that was created by Denson in October 2017 stated Je'Hyrah was diagnosed with autism, the report said.Duterte watches bulldozer wreck luxury vehicles, motorbikes worth almost P300M
He said the destruction was meant to show the country as a place of investment and his strong stance against illegal importers. Duterte, who is two years into a six-year presidential term, changed government policy regarding illegally imported cars.Leaked DJI Mavic 2 advert confirms Pro and Zoom models
We'll have to wait and see, but if all of this comes to fruition there are some big product launches on the way from DJI. Details of an unannounced new drone from market leader DJI have been revealed early in the Argos catalogue. -
Yerry Mina Left In Transfer Limbo After Manchester United Deal Collapses
There has also been speculation that Manchester United are interested, although this hasn't been confirmed by either club. Mina was back with the group despite increased speculation in Spain that a deal has been agreed with Everton .Scuffle breaks out as first woman fined for flaunting Denmark’s ‘burqa ban’
Both women have been charged for fighting in public, but the Muslim woman was also fined for failing to obey the new law. Supporters of the law argue instead that the ban enables better integration of Muslim immigrants into Danish society.Google Details Display Notch Guidelines for Developers and Manufacturers
While we have seen the number of notched Android phones growing increasingly this year, consumers are still divided on the notch. Official support would make it possible for apps to register that a part of the screen is "cut out" and display accordingly.