Donald Trump’s Family Members, Campaign Chair Met With Russian Lawyer At Trump Tower

Members of President Donald Trump’s family and inner circle met with a Russian lawyer with close ties to the Kremlin two weeks after he clinched the Republican presidential nomination, the New York Times reports. The meeting, held at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, included Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, campaign chair Paul Manafort, and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya—a powerful critic of an American law that blacklists Russian officials suspected of involvement in the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009. Donald Trump Jr., who had previously denied meeting with any Russian nationals in connection with the campaign, told the Times that the meeting “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.” A lawyer for Kushner stated that the president’s son-in-law, who now serves as a senior advisor to the president, only “briefly” met with Veselnitskaya at the request of his brother-in-law.