Morning Briefing: Someone In the White House s Actively Trying to F*ck Over Donald Trump Jr.

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | July 11, 2017 |

In case you missed last night’s big development from the NYTimes, there is an email now where Russia offers to collude with the Trump campaign, and Don Jr. is like, “Yes, let’s do it!”

Is it proof of collusion? It’s proof that there was an attempt at collusion. The Mens rea was there, and now we’ve also learned, according to the Russian lawyer tied to the Kremlin, that Trump’s people reached out to her, actively attempting to collude. She was actually summoned to Trump Tower. As she said, “They were desperate” for dirt on Hillary.

Watch Natalia Veselnitskaya describe her meeting with Donald Trump Jr. in an exclusive interview with @KeirSimmons https://t.co/6V6ZO1OaRC
— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 11, 2017

We now know that, as far back as June 2016, at least Kushner, Manafort, and Trump Jr. were actively seeking dirt on Hillary from the Russians.

For what it’s worth, Trump and Reince Priebus were also in Trump Tower on the day of the meeting. Right now, Trump’s only statement re: the matter has come from his outside counsel, who says that Trump wasn’t in the meeting and didn’t know about the meeting. Uh huh. Meanwhile, Trump is tweeting up a storm this morning, but he hasn’t mentioned anything about this latest development. There’s no defense of his son. He’s radio silent. In fact, so far, no one in the White House has disputed any of the reporting, although their story has changed from, “It was a nothing burger,” to there’s nothing wrong with getting oppo research from a foreign enemy. The White House has not yet defended this latest revelation.

As Morning Joe pointed out this morning, it’s also worth noting that we only know what the media knows. Imagine what Bob Mueller already knows. There are a lot of dots, and when you start to connect them all, I’m pretty sure it looks like this.

Maybe my favorite part of this story, however, is that there is someone in the White House or the Justice Department who is actively trying to fuck Don Jr. Someone has a vendetta against Jr. They’re releasing this information one bit at a time, letting Don Jr. defend himself, and then releasing another bit of information that contradicts the defense. It’s been beautifully orchestrated, and according to the one of the reporters on this story at the NYTimes, he is “still reporting,” which means that more information may be coming. It’s also worth noting that Joe Scarborough thinks it’s Steve Bannon doing the leaking in an effort to get Kushner and Don Jr. out of the way, but he might also inadvertently get his boss out of the way, too.

What’s missing at the moment is the dagger in the heart: Did Donald Trump know about the email? Did he know about the meeting? Trump Jr. knew before the intelligence community that the Russians were actively trying to get Trump elected; presumably, that information made its way from Trump Jr. to his father, which suggest that Donny Trash knew all along. That, of course, is the only way to make sense of Trump’s relationship with Putin. It’s the only way to make sense of the fact that Trump is actively trying to water down the sanctions bill against Russia that was voted on 97-2 in the Senate that is currently stuck in the House.

This is not rocket science. It’s simply a matter of finding all the evidence to prove what is so obvious on its face.

Here’s a reminder to those in the White House:

I cannot say this strongly or sincerely enough. If you work in the White House, you need to have a plan in place for retaining a lawyer.
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) July 11, 2017

Not for nothing, but Kushner is up to his neck in this, too. This is at least the fourth meeting with a Russian that he failed to disclose when he sought security clearances, and yet, he still receives intelligence briefings. That’s baffling. And if Trump Jr. knew the Russians were actively working for Trump, then Kushner obviously knew, as well as Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort. It’s a stretch to believe that Trump didn’t know what his son, his son-in-law, and his campaign manager already knew.

In the short term, there’s also the matter of witness tampering:

WITNESS TAMPERING is where this goes next. NYT: "Goldstone spoke to the Trump Org over the weekend, before giving his account to the media."
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) July 11, 2017

(2) The media MUST find out what the Trump Org (Don Jr.?) said to Goldstone. I told two interviewers today that WITNESS TAMPERING is likely.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) July 11, 2017

(3) Classic witness tampering. NYT: After speaking with the Trump Org (Don Jr.?), Goldstone told the NYT his recollection matched Don Jr.'s.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) July 11, 2017

(4) I've worked MANY Witness Tampering cases. And if you were to draw a Looney Tunes cartoon of Witness Tampering, it'd be what Don Jr. did.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) July 11, 2017

We have barely even mentioned Rob Goldstone, the music producer who arranged this meeting between Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer. Goldstone is someone involved with the Trump family dating back to … you guessed it, the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Russia. He was kind enough to check in on the day that he met Trump Jr. in Trump Tower, and there are plenty of pictures of him with the Trump family.