Donald Trump Jr. released his e-mails regarding his meeting with an attorney representing the Russian government. He did so because the New York Times had obtained those e-mails, and was preparing to release them. The e-mails showed that Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort met with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya (who they believed represented the Russian government) to get information Russia had on Hillary Clinton.
Junior then went on Fox News and claimed that he was being "transparent" and there was nothing more to be known. HE LIED!
At that time, it was believed that only four people had been at the meeting -- Trump Jr., Kushner, Manafort, and Veselnitskaya. Then it was revealed that at least two more people were at the meeting -- Rinat Akhmetshin (a lobbyist for Russia and former [?] Russian counterintelligence operative) and a translator (name unknown). Now CNN is reporting that there were at least eight people at the meeting. The additional two are Rob Goldstone (who arranged the meeting with Trump Jr.) and a representative of the Russian family who asked Goldstone to arrange the meeting.
But it doesn't stop there. Not only did Trump jr. expect to get information that would be negative to Hillary Clinton, but the Russian lawyer actually gave Trump Jr. a document purportedly showing illicit funding going to the Clinton campaign (although the information had not been verified).
I can understand why Trump Jr. would want to keep it hidden that he received a document at that meeting. Just having the meeting expecting to receive information was collusion -- but actually receiving a document (they expected to have important information) is a violation of the election laws of the United States. Receiving money (or anything else of value) from a foreign country is illegal.
Some Republicans are now saying the document was worthless (because it was unverified information). That doesn't matter. Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort attended the meeting expecting to receive something of value from the Russian government (that's collusion), and they actually received that document (that's illegal).
I don't expect Trump Jr. or Kushner will ever see the inside of a jail. "The Don" would never allow that to happen -- even if he had to resort to giving a presidential pardon. But that doesn't change the facts. What happened was both unethical and illegal -- and the Trump administration is still trying to hide what really happened.
Our Dear Leader would not regard a pardon as any kind of a big deal. He will say it is all fake news and he has an absolute right to pardon anyone he chooses. Insofar as his right to pardon, he would be correct.
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