Burying Junior - Part 5

Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email.

  NYT

Is the New York Times leaking this out bit by bit to see whether Junior will hang himself with some lies, not knowing what information they have, or are they really just getting more information bit by bit? Kind of looks like the former.

In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, but gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy.

[...]

The email to the younger Mr. Trump was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting.

[...]

Mr. Goldstone’s message, as described to The New York Times by the three people, indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information.

[...]

There is no evidence to suggest that the promised damaging information was related to Russian government computer hacking.

[...]

But the email is likely to be of keen interest to the Justice Department and congressional investigators.

[...]

“In my view, this is much ado about nothing. During this busy period, Robert Goldstone contacted Don Jr. in an email and suggested that people had information concerning alleged wrongdoing by Democratic Party front-runner, Hillary Clinton, in her dealings with Russia,” [Alan Futerfas, the lawyer for the younger Mr. Trump] told The Times in an email on Monday. “Don Jr.’s takeaway from this communication was that someone had information potentially helpful to the campaign and it was coming from someone he knew. Don Jr. had no knowledge as to what specific information, if any, would be discussed.”

But, according to the Times account of the Goldstone email, he had knowledge the source of the information was the Russian government. And then he called Manafort and Kushner into the meeting. So they knew it, too.

The president, a prolific Twitter user, did not address his son’s controversy on Monday, and instead sought to highlight other issues throughout the morning.

Look over there.

He's always been Johnny on the spot to defend himself and the lovely Ivanka. Looks like he's letting Junior go down.

In an interview Monday, Mr. Goldstone said he was asked by Mr. Agalarov to set up the meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

“He said, ‘I’m told she has information about illegal campaign contributions to the D.N.C.,’” Mr. Goldstone recalled, referring to the Democratic National Committee. He said he then emailed Donald Trump Jr., outlining what the lawyer purported to have.

But Mr. Goldstone, who wrote the email over a year ago, denied any knowledge of involvement by the Russian government in the matter, saying that never dawned on him. “Never, never ever,” he said. Later, after the email was described to The Times, efforts to reach him for further comment were unsuccessful.

So, is the Times saying Goldstone was lying in his interview on Monday? I think we need to see that email.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE  7/11:  Ask and ye shall receive.  Junior himself gives up the email (according to him, with the whole chain of emails between the two of them).  And, surprise, surprise, Goldstone was indeed lying.  Small wonder he could not be reached.