Donald Trump “weighed in” on the misleading statement issued by his son about his controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer, the White House has said.
“The President weighed in as any father would, based on the limited information he had,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, adding that Trump “certainly didn’t dictate” Donald Trump Jr’s statement, but did offer suggestions.
The White House comments follow The Washington Post reporting that Trump had personally dictated the response his elder son would use to address the media.
Three weeks ago, one of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers vigorously denied that the commander in chief had anything to do with.
Initially, Trump Jr described the meeting as a “a short introductory meeting” to discuss a programme about the adoption of Russian children.
“It was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up,” Trump Jr said.
Days later, however, Trump Jr posted emails proving he was offered documents as “part of Russia and it’s government’s support for Mr Trump”.
Trump Jr posted his emails with publicist Rob Goldstone on Twitter in which he tells a person promising him damaging information about Hillary Clinton: “If it’s what you say I love it.”
According to the Post report, Trump was integral to heavily editing a statement that was eventually given to the press. “This was ... unnecessary,” one of the president’s advisers told the newspaper.
“Now someone can claim he’s the one who attempted to mislead. Somebody can argue the president is saying he doesn’t want you to say the whole truth.”
On Tuesday, Hucakbee Sanders said: “Everybody wants to try to make this some story about misleading. The only things I see misleading is a year’s worth of stories that have been fuelling a false narrative about this Russia collusion,”