Trump Lawyer Defends Meeting Between Trump Jr, Russians

One of President Donald Trump's lawyers on Sunday defended a meeting between the president's eldest son and Russians last year in a bid to acquire damaging information about rival Hillary Clinton.

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تاریخ: ۲۶ تير ۱۳۹۶ - ۰۹:۵۲

"The meeting in and of itself of course ... is not a violation of the law, but I think it's important to understand that, as counsel to the president, the president was not aware of the meeting and did not participate in it," attorney Jay Sekulow said on ABC News in one of a series of television interviews on the matter.

The revelation of the meeting last week has raised renewed questions about Trump's campaign and possible collusion with Russia tied to Russian interference in the US presidential election.

Trump himself also continued his defence of his son, Donald Trump Jr, declaring on Twitter that his son "Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media" and comparing it to Clinton's treatment over her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

He pointed to remarks by a former campaign advisor as showing "that there was no Russian collusion" in his "winning campaign" and continued to blast the media's treatment of him, charging them of "distorting democracy."

Donald Trump Jr met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and other Russian associates, including a lobbyist with ties to Russian intelligence, after an intermediary said she would provide damaging information about Clinton.

Also present at the June 2016 meeting were Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and Paul Manafort, a top campaign aide who was promoted days later to campaign manager.

The president and his son have said no information was acquired from the meeting, and the president defended it as politics as usual.

Sekulow also said Trump was not aware of any other meetings between his aides and Russians during the campaign.

Democrats involved in congressional inquiries into Russian interference in the US elections have stressed the meeting raises new questions, including about what Trump knew and when he knew it.

"It's a little bit unbelievable that neither the son or the son-in-law ever shared that information with their dad, the candidate," Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, told CNN.

Trump meanwhile named top Washington lawyer Ty Cobb as a special counsel in the White House to handle the ongoing investigation.