There’s a lot Donald Trump Jr. can’t remember about the 2016 election and after, including what he meant by, “If it’s what you say I love it,” in response to an email offering dirt on Hillary Clinton and whether he’s discussed the Russia investigation with his father. That’s according to a transcript released Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee of Trump’s interview with the committee discussing the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting in June 2016.
Read: Donald Trump Jr.’s congressional testimony about the Trump Tower meeting
The Senate Judiciary Committee released the transcript of Donald Trump Jr.’s testimony about the now-infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting and Russia.
Emily Stewart covered business and economics for Vox and wrote the newsletter The Big Squeeze, examining the ways ordinary people are being squeezed under capitalism. Before joining Vox, she worked for TheStreet.
The committee released more than 1,800 pages of transcripts of interviews with President Trump’s eldest son and others who attended the June 9 meeting in Manhattan. Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort were among those who took part in the gathering arranged by publicist Rob Goldstone, who promised that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya had incriminating information about Clinton.
The Trump team initially tried to cover up the meeting when reports of it emerged in the summer of 2017, offering conflicting stories about its purpose and what happened. Trump Jr. tweeted out the full email chain of his communications setting up the meeting to preempt a New York Times story about it in July. The meeting is under scrutiny as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Wednesday’s 200-plus-page transcript provides insight into Trump Jr.’s explanation of the meeting and what happened after, including his response to the email offering Russian-linked dirt on Clinton: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.” His explanation to the Senate Judiciary Committee? It was just a thanks. “It was a colloquial term to say hey, great, thank you.”
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