Donald Trump and his administration are, notoriously, not fans of facts.
The news is fake.
wiretapping
alternative facts
This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration period.
Backtracking, deflection and outright falsehoods
have flowed from the White House with alarming regularity.
The Russia investigation is bursting with examples
of how the Trump administration has played fast and loose with the facts.
Particularly where the Trump Tower meeting is concerned.
Wherever this investigation ends, it's likely to involve the strange events of this mystery
meeting on June 9, 2016.
So, let's take a closer look at how that's unfolded.
Attendees included: Donald Trump Jr.,
campaign manager Paul Manafort
and Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
Then there was: Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with alleged ties to the Kremlin,
Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist
Ike Kaveladze, a Russian businessman and a
translator for the Russians
Also at the meeting was Rob Goldstone, a publicist
who'd worked with the Trump family in the past on the Miss Universe pageant.
He was arranging the meeting on behalf of his client, Russian singer-songwriter Emin Agalarov.
Only about a year later did details about the meeting start to trickle out.
On July 8, 2017, the New York Times broke the news that President Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr.
had arranged this meeting with people connected to Russia.
In less than 24 hours, Trump Jr. responded.
With two different statements.
First, the president's eldest son released a statement that was rather casual in tone,
insisting they mainly discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.
He also said there was no follow up to the meeting.
Months later in December, the public learned that there were actually several follow up
emails between a Trump campaign aide and Goldstone, the publicist who arranged the meeting in
the first place.
And of course the problems with that statement, didn't stop there.
Next, the Times added that Trump Jr. was told that his contacts claimed to have dirt on Hillary Clinton.
So Trump Jr. went to the paper with another...different...statement.
Yes, Clinton came up, but Veselnitskaya's statements were
"vague, ambiguous and made no sense"
Then the New York Times told Trump Jr. that
it would be publishing his email thread with Goldstone about the meeting.
So, Trump Jr. released it himself preemptively on Twitter.
Along with yet another contradicting statement.
Donald Trump Jr. tried to explain that he thought the info on Hillary was just
political opposition research, or oppo.
Which is pretty much information about your opponent that may harm their campaign
and it's common during U.S. elections.
Trump Sr. later chimed in insisting that most people would have taken the meeting.
But veterans of past Republican presidential campaigns interviewed by HuffPost said they wouldn't have.
And more to that point, oppo is rarely—if ever—given by foreign entities.
As far as we know now, the meeting was sparked by the promise of damaging info on Clinton.
And Veselnitskaya said she left with a promise that if Donald Trump was elected, his administration
would review U.S. sanctions on Russia.
Now, it seems pretty odd that Trump Jr. changed his statements so many times, and in such
a short amount of time.
But it was later reported that his earlier statement was actually
dictated by President Trump while flying back to the U.S. from Germany.
This created room for questions about the extent to which Trump was aware of or involved
in these meetings.
From this initial back-and-forth, plenty of explanations ensued about various details springing
from this meeting.
Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, who attended the Trump Tower meeting,
made a statement admitting to meeting with Russians four times.
But he insisted that nothing unsavoury was discussed.
But then he said he took the meeting because the businessman had a "direct relationship"
with Vladimir Putin.
He also said he didn't know anything about emails from Wikileaks, the organization responsible
for the DNC email hack.
But his brother-in-law Trump Jr. had forwarded him and others a message from Wikileaks.
Kushner also left some crucial documents out of a package he had to hand over to the senate
judiciary committee.
Even people on at the meeting who weren't from the Trump campaign came under scrutiny.
The public learned the Russian-American lobbyist and the businessman who were both in attendance
in June 2016, had a meeting in Moscow just before news of the Trump Tower meeting broke.
The obvious question is, were they getting their stories straight?
One of their lawyers says they were not.
But the scenario raises a few eyebrows.
As more time passed, it came out that George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser on the campaign
was first to hear from the Russians about Hillary Clinton intel.
And in March 2016, he made an attempt to set up a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
As far as we know he failed.
But when questioned by the FBI in 2017.
He denied having Russian contacts.
Next thing you know, he's among the first charged by Mueller for making false statements.
Also charged, but for other offences, were Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager,
who was also present at the Trump Tower meeting.
And Rick Gates, who was one of Manafort's business associates.
As a matter of fact, it's been reported that Papadopoulos is the reason Mueller's
investigation started in the first place.
Papadopoulos eventually pleaded guilty to making false statements.
When charges were laid initially, many in Trump's camp downplayed the role
Papadopoulos played in the campaign.
The White House called him a low-level volunteer.
Trump himself said he didn't recall meeting him.
As it turns out, he was actively involved even two months before the election, when
he helped arrange a meeting between Trump and the President of Egypt.
Fast forward to January 2018 and Mueller's investigation revealed that Ivanka Trump was
at Trump Tower at the time of the pivotal meeting as well.
She didn't attend the meeting, but she met some of the attendees in the elevator and
they exchanged small talk.
Again, a detail that was not previously disclosed.
Now, the big looming question is: how much did President Trump know about all of this?
Did he know about the Tower meeting?
Did he know about Papadopoulos trying to arrange a meeting between him and Putin?
Why did he draft his son's statements?
Did he intend for them to be misleading?
There have been other instances of Trump attempting to interfere with the Russia investigation.
He asked for FBI director James Comey's loyalty and then fired him.
When Jeff Sessions was about to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, Trump tried
to get him to stay on, so Sessions could protect him.
With an interview with President Trump himself reportedly next on Mueller's radar
the Trump-Russia investigation may be coming to a close
or at least the end of this chapter, one that could even lead to a criminal prosecution
or even impeachment.
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