Yet with Donald Trump Jr.’s release of self-incriminating emails on Tuesday, the nation learned that the wildest of fantasies was all too real: Granted the chance to take what he believed to be damaging information about Hillary Clinton from a Russian government official, provided because the Kremlin wished to aid his father, Trump Jr. eagerly seized the opportunity. “If it’s what you say I love it,” he wrote to an intermediary. Not only that, but he brought along his brother-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The disclosure of the emails raises a host of questions: Did anyone tell Donald Trump, and if so, when? (The White House and Trump’s attorneys both say he did not attend and was not aware.) Did lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya actually hand over any incriminating information at the June 9, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower? (Both she and Trump Jr. say she did not.) Why release documents that, according to some analysts, already implicate Trump Jr. in a federal crime? And why do it now?

That’s a particularly vexing question because Trump and his aides have so staunchly rejected any suggestion of collusion with the Russians—setting aside President Trump’s refusal to accept the consensus that Russia was behind interference in the election.

On July 24, 2016, for example, Trump Jr. appeared on CNN’s State of the Union and proclaimed the notion that Russia wanted to help his father “phony” and “disgusting”:

This was some six weeks after Trump Jr. met with a “Russian government lawyer” who wanted to give him information because the Russian government wanted to help his father.

The following day, Trump himself weighed in on Twitter:

The new joke in town is that Russia leaked the disastrous DNC e-mails, which should never have been written (stupid), because Putin likes me — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2016

Two days later he granted an interview to a local CBS station in Miami, disclaiming any connection to Russia at all: “I have nothing to do with Russia, nothing to do, I never met Putin, I have nothing to do with Russia whatsoever.”

Trump claims that he was unaware of the June 9 meeting at the time. (In a June 7 victory speech, it’s worth noting, Trump promised revelations about crimes by Hillary Clinton in the near future, perhaps on June 13. No such speech ever materialized.)

Trumps père and fils were not alone. NBC News put together a sizzle reel of Trump officials—including Paul Manafort, who was present at the June 9 meeting—denying any sort of contact between the Russians and the campaign:

Watch: Trump, Pence, Kellyanne, Manafort denying any Trump campaign contact with Russians pic.twitter.com/bm4TzwzQRy — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 11, 2017

In October, when Clinton accused him, during the third and final presidential debate, of being a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump shot back, “No puppet. No puppet. You’re the puppet.”