Communication continued after June 2016 encounter in Trump Tower

New Evidence Undermines Trump Jr. Claim of No Follow-Up

E-mails establish that — contrary to the declaration of Donald Trump Jr. (pictured) — there was follow-up to his meeting, alongside other top Trump campaign officials, with Kremlin-linked envoys in June 2016.

The e-mails from Rob Goldstone, the British publicist who worked with Trump Jr. to arrange the meeting in Trump Tower, were sent to a Russian participant and a member of Donald Trump Sr.’s inner circle later in the summer.

When the meeting was revealed in July 2017, Trump Jr. initially put out the false line — reportedly drafted by his father — that the discussion, which also included Trump Sr.’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, was only about “adoption”.

E-mails from Trump Jr. to Goldstone confirmed that the meeting was set up over the prospect that the Russians might provide material damaging to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. However, Trump Jr. insisted this summer that there was no further discussion after the Trump Tower encounter.

That line is challenged by Goldstone’s follow-up communications. An e-mail to senior Trump aide Dan Scavino, now the White House director of social media, encourages the campaign to get Donald Trump Sr. to create a page on the Russian social networking site VK.

Goldstone told Scavino that “Don and Paul” — Trump Jr. and Manafort — were on board with the idea.

The British publicist also forwarded a CNN story on Russia’s hacking of Democratic National Committee e-mails to associates of the Russian-Azerbaijani tycoon and Trump business associate Aras Agalarov, the driving force behind the June 2016 meeting. The e-mails, to Agalorov’s son Emin and his US representative Ike Kaveladze, said news of the hacking was “eerily weird” given the content of the discussion in Trump Tower five days earlier.

Trump Jr. was asked on Wednesday, in an eight-hour session with the House Intelligence Committee, about the e-mails. He said he could not recall them, according to sources.

Government Avoids Shutdown for 2 Weeks

Congress passes a stopgap spending bill to avoid a government shutdown this weekend, buying time for discussion of the long-delayed Trump Administration budget.

Supplementary funding for the Federal Government’s activities, approved in September, runs out on Friday.

The stopgap bill provides two more weeks of funding. It passed the House of Representatives 235-193, mostly along party lines, and was adopted by the Senate 81-14 an hour later.

Legislators met Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday. Both Democratic and GOP leaders declared the meeting “productive”, and the White House called it “constructive.” However, congressional aides privately said little progress was made.