12th July, 2017
Donald Trump has defended his son over a meeting with a Russian lawyer during his presidential campaign, calling him “open, transparent and innocent”.
He tweeted hours after Donald Trump Jr spoke to Fox News about the meeting he was told would offer Kremlin-linked information about Hillary Clinton.
Critics accuse Mr Trump Jr of intent to collude with the Russians, and believe he may have broken federal laws.
Mr Trump Jr told Fox News the meeting was “such a nothing”.
However, he accepted he should have handled it differently.
Earlier in the day Mr Trump Jr had released the email exchange that brought about the meeting, after being informed the New York Times was about to publish it.
US officials are investigating alleged Russian meddling in the US election.
Since he was elected, President Trump has been dogged by allegations that Russia tried to sabotage Mrs Clinton’s campaign.
He has denied any knowledge of this and Russia has also repeatedly denied interfering.
What do the emails reveal?
Mr Trump Jr received an email from an intermediary, British music publicist Rob Goldstone, promising documents from Russia that would incriminate Mrs Clinton.
At that time, his father was the presumptive Republican nominee and heading towards an election fight against his Democratic rival.
The meeting was reportedly arranged by Russian businessman Aras Agalarov and his son Emin, a pop star who was managed for a time by Mr Goldstone.
One email from Mr Goldstone said the information they had been promised was “obviously very high-level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump”.
Mr Trump Jr’s response to it was: “If it’s what you say I love it.”
Mr Trump Jr, his brother-in-law Jared Kushner and then campaign chairman Paul Manafort met Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York in June 2016.
It became apparent, Mr Trump Jr later said, that Ms Veselnitskaya wanted to discuss a suspended programme for Americans to adopt Russian children.
-BBC