REUTERS/Brian Snyder
President Donald Trump personally dictated his son Donald Trump Jr.’s initial, misleading statement on his June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer and lobbyist in Trump Tower, The Washington Post reports. The president reportedly drafted the statement while aboard Air Force One, after The New York Times first contacted Trump Jr. over allegations that he met with a Russian lawyer who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. The president’s advisers reportedly feared the Times learning more about Trump Jr.’s meeting and argued for transparency with the paper. But Trump reportedly overruled them, crafting a statement that was later attributed to Trump Jr. “We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up,” the statement read. The Times later reported that Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting because he believed he would be provided with compromising information on Clinton.