Trump and Putin, behind the scenes

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At a Thursday Senate Judiciary hearing, Donald Trump Jr. confirmed he set up and attended a meeting with a Russian lawyer in the hopes of obtaining damaging information about Hillary Clinton’s “fitness” for office.
“To the extent they had information concerning the fitness, character or qualifications of a presidential candidate, I believed that I should at least hear them out,” Trump told the committee, according to a transcript obtained by The New York Times. “Depending on what, if any, information they had, I could then consult with counsel to make an informed decision as to whether to give it further consideration.”

Thursday’s statement underlines the fact that his initial statement, which was reportedly dictated by the president in July, was misleading and false. Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team, who are tasked with investigating any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, are “keenly interested” in the president’s involvement in crafting the statement. This is of interest to the Mueller because Trump may have tried to “corruptly persuade” a witness into giving false testimony, which is a crime..

Donald Trump Jr.’s statement to Senate investigators is bad news for his dad – ThinkProgress