Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort at June 2016 discussion with Natalia Veselnitskaya

Developments on Day 178 of the Trump Administration:

Trump Relatives, Campaign Manager Met Russian for Anti-Clinton Info

Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., met a Kremlin-linked lawyer on June 9, 2016 after he was promised damaging information on Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were also at the meeting in Trump Tower in New York with Natalia Veselnitskaya. Reince Preibus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, was at Trump Tower that day, although there is no indication that he joined the discussion

The discussion came two weeks after Trump clinched the Republican nomination. Less than two weeks after the meeting, a memorandum in a dossier on claimed contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials asserted that the Kremlin “had been feeding Trump valuable information on his opponents, including Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton” for several years.

Veselnitskaya is best known for her attack on the Magnitsky Act, an US law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers. Putin retaliated against the law by halting American adoptions of Russian children.

The June 9 meeting first came to light when Manafort and Kushner disclosed it in confidential government documents described to The New York Times. Neither man referred to the content of the discussion.

The Times reported on the existence of the meetings on Saturday, but it was only on Sunday — following information from “three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it” — that the newspaper said the subject had been anti-Clinton information.

On Saturday, Donald Trump Jr. tried to downplay the meetings being only about “adoptions”. But on Sunday, confronted by the revelations, he said he met with Veselnitskaya at the request of an acquaintance from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which Donald Trump Sr. took to Moscow.

After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs. Clinton. 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.

Trump Jr. said the lawyer then moved the conversation to adoption of Russian children and 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.”

Lawyers for Kushner referred questions to Donald Trump Jr. Manafort declined to comment.

Veselnitskaya said that the meeting had nothing to do with the US Presidential campaign.

In March, Donald Trump Jr. said he had never met with Russian officials. Kushner initially did not disclose meetings with any foreign contacts — including the Russian ambassador to the United States and the head of a Russian state bank — until newspaper articles pointed out the omission.

Trump Backs Off Joint US-Russia Cyber-Security Unit

Donald Trump has backed off the idea of a joint US-Russia group over cyber-threats.

After his meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday, Trump proclaimed, “Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded.”

Trump soon faced a barrage of criticism, including from Republican Senators, and he poured cold water on his initiative by Sunday night.

Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was among the GOP Senators denouncing Trump’s plan, “Not the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard — but it’s pretty close”: