Trump jnr storm 'category 5 hurricane' for White House

Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya & Donald Trump Jr. Photos / AP

The White House is in chaos after days of revelations about a meeting between Donald Trump jnr and a lawyer characterised as representing the Russian Government, as the US President fumes against enemies and aides circle each other with suspicion.

President Donald Trump - who has been hidden from public view since returning last weekend from a divisive international summit - is enraged that the Russia cloud still hangs over his presidency and is exasperated that his oldest son has become engulfed by it, said people who have spoken to him this week.

The disclosure that Trump jnr met a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, believing he would receive incriminating information about Hillary Clinton as part of the Kremlin's effort to boost his father's candidacy, has set back the Administration's faltering agenda and rattled the senior leadership team.

Even supporters of Trump jnr who believe he faces no legal repercussions privately acknowledged that the story is a public relations disaster - for him as well as for the White House.

One outside ally called it a "category 5 hurricane," while an outside adviser said a CNN graphic charting connections between the Trump team and Russians resembled the plot of House of Cards.

Even Vice-President Mike Pence sought to distance himself from the controversy, with his spokesman noting that Trump jnr's meeting occurred before Pence joined the ticket.

Inside a White House in which infighting often seems like a core cultural value, three straight days of revelations in the New York Times about Trump jnr have inspired a new round of accusations and recriminations, with advisers privately speculating about who inside the Trump orbit may be leaking damaging information about the President's son.

This portrait of the Trump White House under siege is based on interviews with more than a dozen West Wing officials, outside advisers and friends and associates of the President and his family.

The mind-set of Trump jnr over the past few days has evolved from distress to anger to defiance, according to people close to him. He hired a criminal defence lawyer, but maintains that he is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Trump jnr told his friend, Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, on his show that he "has probably met with other people from Russia" but insisted he did not attempt to co-ordinate to influence the presidential election or try to damage Clinton.

He suggested the charges of collusion were "ridiculous" and "overplayed". "It was such a nothing there was nothing to tell" his father, Trump jnr said. "For me, this was opposition research."

President Trump continues to view the Russia controversy as an excuse used by Democrats and an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of his election victory, aides said. They said that the President's frustration is based on the media coverage of his son's actions, as opposed to the actions themselves.

Trump and his advisers are frustrated that the disclosure by Trump jnr has overshadowed the positive coverage they expected to receive from the President's trip abroad.

A handful of Republican operatives close to the White House have begun what could be an extensive campaign to try to discredit some of the journalists who have been reporting on the Trump jnr matter.

Their plan is to research the reporters' previous work and to exploit any mistakes or perceived biases.

They intend to demand corrections, trumpet errors on social media and feed them to conservative outlets, such as Fox News.

Some senior White House officials were hesitant to talk about Trump jnr for fear of exposing themselves legally.

Some top officials, as well as outside advisers, had earlier suggested that the White House conduct its own internal review to identify any potential problem areas related to Russia so that it can release the information on its own rather than be caught unaware by news reports.

But that notion went nowhere, in part because officials were afraid to discuss any potential Russia interactions that could make them targets of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe.

One White House official went so far as to stop communicating with the President's embattled son, although this official spoke sympathetically, casting Trump jnr as someone who just wants to hunt, fish and run his family's real estate business.

"The kid is an honest kid," said one friend of Trump jnr. "The White House should've never let that story go out on the President's son ... What he's upset about was that it was a minor meeting and the media glare - anything that's Russia-related, gets picked up the way roaches get caught in a roach motel."

Critics of Trump jnr counter that he should have known better than to accept a meeting with someone who was explicitly described in an email as a "Russian government attorney". Michael McFaul, the US ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama, said: "It wasn't naivete. It was, 'Oh, they have some dirt on our opponent and I'm eager to receive it.' Nobody thought to think, 'Well, how did they obtain that? Is this coming from the Russian Government, Russian intelligence?' Those are the kinds of obvious questions that should have been asked, in my opinion."

On Capitol Hill Republican senators are becoming increasingly frustrated with the White House, which they blame for Congress's inability to pass any major legislation. A growing number of senators believe that the widening Russia probe, as well as the Trump-fuelled tumult that seems to dominate nearly every news cycle, have stalled their legislative agenda, leaving them nothing to offer their constituents by way of achievements.

Q&A

• Was there collusion?
There is no US law against "collusion". Some lawyers say the events described in the emails could amount to a conspiracy to break campaign finance law. Jeffrey Jacobovitz, who represented White House officials during the investigation of President Bill Clinton, says Donald Trump jnr and others in the meeting are "exposed to the conspiracy to commit election fraud" as they appeared to be working to illegally solicit a foreign campaign contribution in the form of opposition research.

• Don't all campaigns seek opposition research?
Presidential campaigns typically have teams digging for dirt on opponents. No one has said they experienced anything like the Trump jnr interaction. Campaigns are timid about handling materials that could have been obtained illegally.

• What could be illegal?
Foreign nationals are prohibited from providing "anything of value" to campaigns and solicitation of such assistance is barred. Larry Noble, a former general counsel to the Federal Election Commission, says the emails "put meat on the bones" of a possible criminal campaign finance violation. They show Trump jnr knew Moscow was offering the information and "give a clear indication he was soliciting it". Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, says "it would be an absurdist interpretation of the law" to consider what Trump jnr did a crime. "The law does not cover talking politics. If it did, pretty much every political meeting would be considered an in-kind contribution that needs to be reported." Bradley Smith, a former Republican FEC member, says "a meeting does not a conspiracy make".

- AP

'I love it,' son said of Russia offer

A protest outside the White House in Washington. Photo / AP

For months, US President Donald Trump and his aides have rejected any suggestion that they sought or received help from Russia to win last year's election.

But the release yesterday of a 2016 email exchange in which the President's eldest son welcomed the assistance of a "Russian government lawyer" offered the clearest contradiction of the White House's denials.

The email exchange was aimed at setting up a June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump jnr and a Kremlin-connected lawyer who was said to have damaging information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

The meeting at Trump Tower was also attended by Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

During the email exchange, Trump jnr was told by an intermediary that the "high level" information he would be offered about Clinton was "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr Trump," and would be "highly useful for your father". The younger Trump appeared to relish the opportunity. "If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer," he wrote back.

The email exchange showed clearly that Trump jnr - a key figure in his father's campaign - had reason to understand that he was accepting the meeting as a way to channel to his father's campaign information directly from the government of a nation hostile to the United States.

The revelation, coming amid investigations by Congress and a special counsel, sparked immediate calls by Democrats for the meeting participants to testify under oath and raised questions about legal jeopardy that Trump jnr and other associates could face.

The revelation also could heighten pressure on Republicans, many of whom either dismissed the significance of the email exchange or declined to comment.