Legal Jeopardy: President Trump Dictated Misleading "Russian Attorney Meeting" Statement Issued By Don Jr.

Donald Trump Jr. (L) and Donald Trump Sr. (R)

According to the Washington Post, President Trump himself dictated the statement his son Donald Jr. would initially release regarding his meeting with a "Russian government attorney."

Whether it is criminal or not, it never looks good when someone who is being criminally investigated works to hide information or mislead. To release this statement under the guise of coming from Don Jr. was an organized effort to mislead the public.

Worse, the Donald's own lawyer twice denied the president's involvement in drafting the statement.

From the Washington Post:

Flying home from Germany on July 8 aboard Air Force One, Trump personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr. said that he and the Russian lawyer had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” when they met in June 2016, according to multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations. The statement, issued to the New York Times as it prepared an article, emphasized that the subject of the meeting was “not a campaign issue at the time.”

The claims were later shown to be misleading.

Over the next three days, multiple accounts of the meeting were provided to the news media as public pressure mounted, with Trump Jr. ultimately acknowledging that he had accepted the meeting after receiving an email promising damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s campaign.

The extent of the president’s personal intervention in his son’s response, the details of which have not previously been reported, adds to a series of actions that Trump has taken that some advisers fear could place him and some members of his inner circle in legal jeopardy.

As a refresher, this is the message that Donald Trump dictated for his son to release:

“It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. 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.

“I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.”