REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of investigators are probing whether President Donald Trump deliberately concealed the purpose of a meeting between his son Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-connected lawyer, NBC News reports. In June 2016, Trump Jr. met with the Russian lawyer, whom he believed had compromising information on Hillary Clinton. In July 2017, when The New York Times first reported on the meeting, Trump Jr. released a statement that downplayed the meeting and described it as being an “introductory” discussion on Russian adoption laws. The Washington Post reported that President Trump had personally “dictated” his son’s statement while aboard Air Force One, against advisers’ recommendations. The following day, the Times released emails revealing that Trump Jr. had agreed to the meeting under the understanding that he would receive “incriminating” material on Clinton. Three sources told NBC News that Mueller’s team was probing whether the president knew the substance of his son’s meeting and purposely crafted the statement to obscure its purpose.