President Donald Trump broke his silence about his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer, defending the decision to hold the meeting but saying that he did not know about it.
President Trump on Wednesday gave an interview to Reuters in which he said that his eldest son's actions were not unusual.
"I think many people would have held that meeting," he said.
Donald Trump Jr. released emails Monday showing that he, along with Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, met with Natalia Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower last year after hearing that she had information from the Russian government about Hillary Clinton. Critics have said this proves an intent to collude with Russia, but the president said he did not know about the meeting until recently.
"No, that I didn't know until a couple of days ago when I heard about this," he said.
The president has cast doubt on the matter of Russian collusion throughout the controversy. He has called the investigation a "witch hunt" repeatedly, and Wednesday morning he tweeted that efforts against his son were "the greatest Witch Hunt in political history."
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/885081181980590084
Trump Jr. appeared on Fox News' "Hannity" on Tuesday night to defend himself. He said that he did not have "formalized" meetings with Russians and downplayed the meeting with Veselnitskaya.
"I've probably met with other people from Russia, certainly not in the context of a formalized meeting or anything like that, because why would I? In the grand scheme of things, how busy we were … this was a courtesy to an acquaintance," he told Sean Hannity.