Donald Trump Jr.’s bombshell admission over the weekend is the clearest example to date that members of President Trump’s inner circle are at the heart of this scandal, and unfortunately for Trump Jr., his previous statements ensure this is only going to get much, much worse for him. Trump Jr. has been lying about his contacts with Russians for almost a year now, starting with his first lie that is dated just weeks after the meeting in question. At that time, he brought a Kremlin-tied lawyer to Trump Tower to meet with then-campaign chair Paul Manafort and then-campaign senior adviser Jared Kushner to obtain damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
Days after the meeting at Trump Tower, Russian hackers attacked the DNC email system. A month later the stolen emails were leaked just in time to spur negative media coverage around the Democratic National Convention.
The timing of this meeting is not a coincidence, it is collusion.
As this scandal continues to unfold here are four lies from Donald Trump Jr. that will come back to haunt him:
July 25, 2016 (just ONE MONTH after he set up the meeting): “JAKE TAPPER: So I don’t know if you were hearing earlier, but Robby Mook, the campaign manager for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I asked him about the DNC leak and he suggested that experts are saying that Russians were behind both the hacking of the DNC emails and their release. He seemed to be suggesting that this is part of a plot to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton. Your response? “DONALD TRUMP, JR.: It just goes to show you their exact moral compass. They’ll say anything to be able to win this. I mean, this is time and time again. Lie after lie. You know, he won’t say, “Well, I say this – we hear experts.” You know, his house cat at home once said that this is what’s happening with the Russians. It’s disgusting. It’s so phony. I watched him bumble through the interview, I was able to hear it on audio a little bit. I can’t think of bigger lies. But that exactly goes to show you what the DNC and what the Clinton camp will do. They will lie and do anything to win. You hear it with the DNC where they’re leaking emails about Bernie Sanders and his Jewish heritage to be able to try and destroy him in the south. It’s a rigged system. It’s disgusting. And the people should be fed up. Because when I heard it I certainly was. There’s nothing wrong with a fair fight, Jake. I don’t mind a fair fight. But these lies and the perpetuating of that kind of nonsense to try to gain some political capital is just outrageous and he should be ashamed of himself. If a Republican did that, they’d be calling for people to bring out the electric chair.”
June 6, 2017: “I mean to me, it’s without a question, it reads and smells like a witch hunt.”
June 10, 2017: “When I see what’s going on right now, when I see what went on for ten months with the Russia nonsense and the smear, and then we see what happens on Thursday, it’s like give me a break. I mean they literally spent ten months chasing a rabbit down a hole with essentially the sole purpose of trying to take down my father. We were vindicated, I mean, totally.”
March 2017: Donald Trump Jr. Said He Never Had A “Set Up” Meeting With Russian Nationals While Representing The Campaign In “Any Way, Shape, Or Form.” “Donald Trump Jr. had denied participating in any campaign-related meetings with Russian nationals when he was interviewed by The Times in March. “Did I meet with people that were Russian? I’m sure, I’m sure I did,” he said. “But none that were set up. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form.” Asked at that time whether he had ever discussed government policies related to Russia, the younger Mr. Trump replied, “A hundred percent no.”
Published: Jul 10, 2017