Report: Trump dictated misleading statement on Trump Jr.'s Russia meeting

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

While on a plane headed back to the U.S. from the G-20 summit in Germany on July 8, President Trump personally dictated the statement on his son Donald Trump Jr.'s June 2016 meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer, saying they "primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children," several people with knowledge of the incident told The Washington Post Monday.

This statement, sent to The New York Times before it ran an article about the meeting, was misleading, and it came out after more reporting that Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting after being told in an email that the lawyer had damaging information about Hillary Clinton, courtesy of the Russian government. The original plan was to release a statement that accurately spelled out what the meeting was about, so once the full details emerged, it would show they were being honest, the Post reports. Hours later, Trump became involved, and switched gears, dictating the statement himself.

Several of the president's advisers are now worried that by being directly involved, Trump could be accused of covering up the meeting's true agenda, the Post reports. Many also said they are afraid Trump is acting like his own lawyer, strategist, and publicist, and ignoring sound recommendations from his advisers. Read the entire report at The Washington Post.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.