A New York Times report yesterday citing advisers to the White House briefed on the encounter said Trump Jr. Agreed to the meeting after being promised information damaging to Hillary Clinton.
The June meeting at Trump Tower with attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya involved Trump Jr., his brother-in-law Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, who was then the campaign chairman.
The existence of the meeting was disclosed only recently to government officials and confirmed on Saturday by representatives of Trump Jr. And Kushner following a separate Times report.
Trump Jr. Said that during the meeting the attorney claimed to have information that "individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee" and supporting Clinton.
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"No details or supporting information was provided or even offered," Trump Jr. Said. "It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information."
On Saturday, Trump Jr. Had described the same gathering as "short introductory meeting" during which the three discussed a disbanded program that used to allow US citizens to adopt Russian children. Russia ended the adoptions in response to American sanctions brought against the nation following the 2009 death of an imprisoned lawyer who spoke about a corruption scandal.
He said that the attorney turned the conversation to the adoption of Russian children, and that he believed that this was the "true agenda" of the meeting and that claims about damaging information had been a pretext for the encounter.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump's legal team, said only, "The President was not aware of and did not attend the meeting."
Unlike Kushner, Trump Jr. Does not serve in the administration and is not required to disclose his foreign contacts. The newspaper said the meeting was disclosed in recent days to government investigators filed a revised version of a form needed to obtain a security clearance. His attorney has previously acknowledged that Kushner's first security clearance submissions were incomplete and contained errors.
The newspaper said Veselnitskaya is known for her attempts to undercut the sanctions against Russian human rights abusers. The Times also said her clients include state-owned businesses and the son of a senior government official whose company was under investigation in the United States at the time of the meeting.