The Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 presidential campaign denied ever promising to give damaging information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Trump Jr., in an interview with NBC News Tuesday.
In the interview with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer, denied all reports that Trump Jr. asked her for damaging information on Clinton. Veselnitskaya explained that Trump Jr. asked questions related to improper financing of the Clinton presidential campaign.
“The question that I was asked was as follows: whether I had any financial records which might prove that the funds used to sponsor the DNC were coming from inappropriate sources,” she said.
Trump Jr.’s meeting with Veselnitskaya took place on June 9, 2016, at Trump Tower in New York City — two days after Trump became the Republican nominee. He admitted he sought information on Clinton in a statement to The New York Times Monday but claimed he did not know if Veselnitskaya had connections to the Russian government prior to the meeting. The lawyer denied having any connection with the Russian government in the interview with NBC. A representative for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that he does not know Veselnitskaya and had no knowledge of the meeting.
WATCH:
TheNYT reported Monday that Trump Jr. was told in an email before arranging the meeting that the Russian government was behind the damaging information. The email was allegedly sent by Rob Goldstone, a former British tabloid reporter who helped Trump Jr. arrange the meeting. The email indicates that the damaging Clinton information came from the Russian government but does not indicate if they got the information from the Democratic National Committee hack.
With his name in the spotlight, Trump Jr. has continued to blast the media and the Democrats about their coverage of his meeting with the Russian lawyer, saying it was “nonsense” and calling them desperate in a tweet sent out Tuesday morning. (RELATED: Trump Jr. Blasts Media: ‘I Understand The Desperation’)
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