Two weeks after U.S. President, Donald Trump won the Republican nomination last year, his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. arranged a meeting with a Russian lawyer who has connections with the Kremlin.
According to a New York Times report, the unreported meeting, which took place on June 9, 2016 at Trump Tower in Manhattan, was attended by Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul J. Manafort and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
This was the first confirmed private meeting between Trump’s team and any person linked with the Russian Government during the campaign.
This is also the first known report of Trump Jr. being involved in such a meeting.
Moreover, officials of Trump Jr. and Kushner confirmed the meeting describing it as primarily about an adoption program.
The former FBI Director, James Comey had accused Trump of firing him to try to undermine the FBI’s investigation of possible collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia in alleged efforts to influence last year’s presidential election.
Comey told the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee that the Trump administration had lied and defamed him and the FBI after the President dismissed him on May 9.
The more than two hour-long-testimony saw Comey further informing that Trump had directed him to drop an FBI probe against former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Comey said it should be special counsel Robert Mueller’s task to determine whether Trump had obstructed justice, and therefore, had opened himself up to possible impeachment proceedings, keeping the allegations on Russia in mind.
He, however, said that whatever Trump did was “a very disturbing thing, very concerning.”
Comey painted a picture of an overbearing President he did not trust and who pressured him to stop the FBI probe of Flynn.
Russia has denied interfering in last year’s presidential elections, as has the White House.
