Donald Trump Jr was told that material on Hillary Clinton offered by a Russian lawyer was part of Moscow’s effort to help his father’s election campaign, the New York Times has said.
Publicist Rob Goldstone, who arranged the June 2016 meeting with the lawyer, stated this in an email, it reported.
But the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, told NBC on Tuesday she never had any sensitive information on Clinton. US officials are investigating alleged Russian meddling in the US election. Separately on Tuesday, Russian officials said Moscow was ready to expel 30 US diplomats and seize US state property in retaliation for sanctions imposed by Barack Obama over Russian hacking of Democratic Party computers.
The paper reports that three people with knowledge of the Goldstone email said it indicated the Russian Government was the source of the potentially damaging information on Clinton. But the paper says there was no mention in the email of any wider effort by the Russian Government to interfere in the election, nor was there any indication of a link to the hacking attack on the Democratic Party that was first reported a week after the meeting.
Goldstone has previously denied any knowledge of involvement by the Russian Government.
Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC that the New York Times report was “a very serious development”.