Just as The New York Times broke the story that it had obtained a copy of the June 2016 email in which Trump Jr. agreed to meet with an agent of the Russian government, Trump Jr. himself gave up the goods:
Here's my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017
Here is page 4 (which did not post due to space constraints). pic.twitter.com/z1Xi4nr2gq
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017
In the emails, music promoter and Trump associate Rob Goldstone literally writes, “The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with [Russian real estate tycoon Aras Agalarov] this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.” (N.B., there is no such thing as a crown prosecutor of Russia, though the Times suggests he may have been referring to the prosecutor general.)
He adds, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump—helped along by Aras and Emin.” (Emin is Aras Agalarov’s son, and a Russian pop star.)
Holy shit!
But it gets better. Trump Jr. responds, “If that’s what you say I love it.”
To sum up: Goldstone explicitly states that the intelligence is coming from the Russian government. Goldstone also explicitly states that the Russian government supports Donald Trump in his race against Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. gives the green light without hesitation. Then he invites Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner to the meeting, forwards them a copy of the email chain, and they attend. They meet with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. (Amazingly, Goldstone offers to forward the invitation to Trump himself, through a secretary, which means Trump Jr., by responding to this offer of dirt with such celerity, might have unwittingly acted as a shield for his father.)
So there you have it. Attempted collusion between the campaign and the Russians to sabotage Clinton’s candidacy. The evidence could hardly be more damning. The subject line of the email reads: “Russia - Clinton - private and confidential.”