Donald Trump Jr Email on Russian Offer of Hillary Clinton Dirt: ‘I Love It’

President’s son releases statement and posts full text of email chain

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Donald Trump Jr. went on the defensive Tuesday, releasing a series of emails from last summer with an acquaintance who claimed to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the Russia government and to which the president’s son responded, “I love it!”

Trump Jr. tweeted out what he said was the full correspondence with U.K.-based music promoter and tabloid reporter Rob Goldstone shortly after the New York Times published the text of the emails.

It was Goldstone who helped to broker the meeting last June between Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Trump Jr., the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort — a meeting that has become a major focus of inquiry since it was first disclosed last weekend by the Times.

In one email, Goldstone promised to provide information that “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. … This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

Trump Jr. replied within minutes, “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

In a later email, Goldstone offered to set up a meeting with Veselnitskaya, whom he described as a “Russian government attorney.”

It’s unclear what the damaging information might have entailed and there is no evidence that it was linked to the Russian government’s hacking of emails at the Democratic National Committee and their subsequent leaking to the public.

Trump Jr. has dismissed the value of any information Veselnitskaya might have provided. “Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense,” he told the Times on Sunday. “No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

The emails also show that Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were included (at least partially) in the email thread about setting up the media.

The president’s eldest son has denied any wrongdoing and said he posted the emails in an effort to be “totally transparent.”

“Media and Dems are extremely invested in the Russia story,” he tweeted earlier on Tuesday. “If this nonsense meeting is all they have after a year, I understand the desperation!”

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