Tag: Donald Trump Jr.

Trump and WikiLeaks: Five things to know

The following article by Morgan Chalfant was posted on the Hill website November 18, 2017:

© Getty Images

The revelation this week that Donald Trump Jr. corresponded with WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign has added a new wrinkle to the competing probes into Russian interference.

Legal experts say the development is likely to intensify scrutiny of Trump’s eldest son, who is already under the microscope for a controversial June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer.

Separately, a pair of senators revealed Thursday that Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had received correspondence about WikiLeaks prior to the election. They said Kushner has not yet turned over those documents to congressional investigators. Continue reading “Trump and WikiLeaks: Five things to know”

Donald Trump’s Trump, Jr., Problem

The following article by John Cassidy was posted on the New Yorker website November 14, 2017:

The President’s eldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., is once again in the soup, following revelations that he corresponded with WikiLeaks during the 2016 Presidential election. Credit: Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty

With his Fifth Avenue-redneck persona and his affinity for the alt-right, Donald Trump, Jr., has sometimes been described as a chip off the old block. But his relationship with his father hasn’t always been a smooth one.

When Trump, Jr., was twelve, his father left his mother, Ivana, for a much younger woman, Marla Maples. It has been widely reported that Trump, Jr., stopped talking to his father for a time after that. They reportedly had some run-ins later on, too, when Trump, Jr., was enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania. “Don Jr. opened the door, wearing a Yankee jersey,” Scott Melker, one of his former classmates, wrote on Facebook last year, describing what happened on one occasion when Trump came to take his son to a Yankees game. “Without saying a word, his father slapped him across the face, knocking him to the floor in front of all of his classmates. He simply said “put on a suit and meet me outside,’ and closed the door.” (The Trumps have denied this account.) Continue reading “Donald Trump’s Trump, Jr., Problem”

The big problem with Donald Trump Jr.’s excuse for collaborating with WikiLeaks

The following article by Aaron Rupar was posted on the ThinkProgress website November 14, 2017:

The timeline is more incriminating than he’d have you believe.

CREDIT: AP PHOTO/SETH WENIG

Donald Trump Jr. seems to think that the direct messages he exchanged with WikiLeaks aren’t particularly incriminating. On Monday night, Trump Jr. tweeted out what he claims were his “entire chain of messages” with WikiLeaks, and he dismissively wrote that his messages consisted of a “whopping 3 responses.”

According to those direct messages, Trump Jr.’s last message to Wikileaks was sent on October 3, 2016 — four days before the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security released a joint statement publicly accusing WikiLeaks of being a Kremlin front. Continue reading “The big problem with Donald Trump Jr.’s excuse for collaborating with WikiLeaks”

The clear timeline suggesting Donald Trump Jr. coordinated with WikiLeaks

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website November 14, 2017:

President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. communicated with WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential campaign. Here’s what the messages say. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

On Oct. 14, 2016, Mike Pence took to Fox News and flat-out denied that the Trump campaign was “in cahoots” with WikiLeaks. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” the Republican vice-presidential nominee said.

Turns out Pence’s answer was pretty far from the truth. Continue reading “The clear timeline suggesting Donald Trump Jr. coordinated with WikiLeaks”

Donald Trump Jr releases messages he exchanged with WikiLeaks during campaign

The following article by their Foreign Staff was posted on the Telegraph website November 14, 2017:

Credit: Richard Drew/AP

President Donald Trump’s son released on Monday a series of messages he had with WikiLeaks after a report suggested he had secretly liaised with the group that published Hillary Clinton’s emails during last year’s election.

Donald Trump, Jr revealed what he said was the “entire” chain of Twitter direct messages with WikiLeaks between September 2016 and July this year, in which the anti-secrecy group sought to feed information to the Trump campaign and enhance the impact of its Clinton releases.

Mr Trump Jr’s release, also done on Twitter, shows about a dozen messages from WikiLeaks to him, and what he called “my whopping 3 responses.” Continue reading “Donald Trump Jr releases messages he exchanged with WikiLeaks during campaign”

The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks

The following article by Julia Ioffe was posted on the Atlantic website November 13, 2017:

The transparency organization asked the president’s son for his cooperation—in sharing its work, in contesting the results of the election, and in arranging for Julian Assange to be Australia’s ambassador to the United States.

Julian Assange in May at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Mr. Assange confirmed on Twitter that he had been approached before the 2016 election by the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica. Credit Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Just before the stroke of midnight on September 20, 2016, at the height of last year’s presidential election, the WikiLeaks Twitter account sent a private direct message to Donald Trump Jr., the Republican nominee’s oldest son and campaign surrogate. “A PAC run anti-Trump site putintrump.org is about to launch,” WikiLeaks wrote. “The PAC is a recycled pro-Iraq war PAC. We have guessed the password. It is ‘putintrump.’ See ‘About’ for who is behind it. Any comments?” (The site, which has since become a joint project with Mother Jones, was founded by Rob Glaser, a tech entrepreneur, and was funded by Progress for USA Political Action Committee.)

The next morning, about 12 hours later, Trump Jr. responded to WikiLeaks. “Off the record I don’t know who that is, but I’ll ask around,” he wrote on September 21, 2016. “Thanks.” Continue reading “The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks”

The ‘dossier’ and the uranium deal: A guide to the latest allegations

The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website October 29, 2017:

Fusion GPS is an opposition research firm run by ex-journalists, but how is it connected to the Trump dossier, Donald Trump Jr.’s Trump Tower meeting and the 2016 election? The Fact Checker’s Glenn Kessler explains. (Video: Meg Kelly/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

As a service to readers bound to be confused by an increasingly complex story, here’s a brief guide to the latest developments in the tangled allegations involving Russia, President Trump and Hillary Clinton.

The Dossier

Background: The “dossier” is a collection of 17 memosconcerning President Trump and Russia written by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer, between June 20 and Dec. 13, 2016. Steele produced his memos under a contract with Fusion GPS, a strategic intelligence firm run by former journalists. Continue reading “The ‘dossier’ and the uranium deal: A guide to the latest allegations”

Senate Judiciary’s meeting with Trump Jr. scheduled for Thursday

The following article by Karoun Demirjian was posted on the Washington Post website September 5, 2017:

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, here answering reporters’ questions in May 2017, said Tuesday that it was his “aspirational goal” to conclude the committee’s probe and release its findings by the end of the year. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet with Donald Trump Jr. on Thursday to discuss the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia, according to three Democratic members of the committee.

The meeting, which is expected to be comprehensive, is the first opportunity that members of the committee will have to grill someone from President Trump’s inner circle about the campaign’s alleged attempts to engage with Kremlin surrogates, during a period when the intelligence community believes Russia was taking steps to influence the 2016 presidential election in favor of Trump’s candidacy.

Trump Jr. will be the first Trump campaign member who participated in a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer to speak with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Committee members still hope to interview Trump’s then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, and the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, about the meeting they held in Trump Tower with the Russian lawyer claiming to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Continue reading “Senate Judiciary’s meeting with Trump Jr. scheduled for Thursday”

Trump dictated son’s misleading statement on meeting with Russian lawyer

The following article by Ashley Parker, Carol D. Leonnig, Philip Rucker and Tom Hamburger was posted on the Washington Post website July 31, 2017:

On the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Germany last month, President Trump’s advisers discussed how to respond to a new revelation that Trump’s oldest son had met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign — a disclosure the advisers knew carried political and potentially legal peril.

The strategy, the advisers agreed, should be for Donald Trump Jr. to release a statement to get ahead of the story. They wanted to be truthful, so their account couldn’t be repudiated later if the full details emerged. Continue reading “Trump dictated son’s misleading statement on meeting with Russian lawyer”

Eighth person in Trump Tower meeting is identified

The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamberger was posted on the Washington Post website July 18, 2017:

Donald Trump Jr. is interviewed by host Sean Hannity last Tuesday. (Richard Drew/AP)

An American-based employee of a Russian real estate company took part in a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr., bringing to eight the number of known participants at the session that has emerged as a key focus of the investigation of the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russians.

Ike Kaveladze’s presence was confirmed by Scott Balber, an attorney for Emin and Aras Agalarov, the Russian developers who hosted the Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant in 2013. Balber said Kaveladze works for the Agalarovs’ company and attended as their representative.

Balber said Tuesday that he received a phone call from a representative of Special Counsel Robert Mueller over the weekend asking if Kaveladze would agree to be interviewed. Balber said his client would cooperate. The request is the first public indication that Mueller’s team is investigating the meeting. Continue reading “Eighth person in Trump Tower meeting is identified”