Donald Trump Jr.’s admission he met with a mysterious Kremlin-linked woman who offered dirt on Hillary Clinton has breathed new life into theories of Russian collusion, even as the president tweeted it’s time to “move forward” with Russia.

In a statement released yesterday, Trump Jr. acknowledged he took the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York last summer because she claimed to have proof that “individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee” and supporting Hillary Clinton.

“I was asked to have a meeting by an acquaintance I knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant with an individual who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign,” Trump Jr. said of the meeting, which was also attended by Jared Kushner and then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. “Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

Trump Jr. said Veselnitskaya — who The New York Times reported is known for her attempts to undercut sanctions against Russian human rights abusers — quickly “changed subjects and began discussing the adoption of Russian children and mentioned the Magnitsky Act,” a U.S. law passed to punish Russia for the prison death of a lawyer who uncovered money laundering in the country.

A report at conservative news outlet Circa said Trump’s lawyers fear the meeting may have been a setup. Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team, told the outlet that Veselnitskaya is associated with Fusion GPS, the firm reportedly retained by Democratic operatives that commissioned a salacious, unsubstantiated dossier on Trump by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele.

“We have learned from both our own investigation and public reports that the participants in the meeting misrepresented who they were and who they worked for,” Corallo told Circa. “These developments raise serious issues as to exactly who authorized and participated in any effort by Russian nationals to influence our election in any manner.”

Trump Jr. said his father was never made aware of the meeting, and that promises of dirt on Democrats “were a pretext” for discussing adoptions and the Magnitsky Act.

“I interrupted and advised her that my father was not an elected official, but rather a private citizen, and that her comments and concerns were better addressed if and when he held public office,” Trump Jr. said.

The meeting was disclosed only recently to government officials, and confirmed Saturday by representatives of Trump Jr. and Kushner following a New York Times report.

The development comes as analysts say Trump can leverage an olive branch to Russia to strike decisive blows against the Islamic State in Syria. In a series of tweets yesterday, Trump tied warmer relations with Russia to the success of a cease-fire in war-torn Syria.

“We negotiated a ceasefire in parts of Syria which will save lives. Now it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia!” Trump tweeted, adding he “strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election” during their meeting at the G-20 summit and that Putin “vehemently denied it.”

Kamran Bokhari, a senior fellow with the Center for Global Policy and an analyst with Geopolitical Futures, said Trump’s tweets show he’s adopting a long-postulated strategy of forgiving Russian incursions in Crimea to set in motion crippling Russian-backed blows against ISIS in Syria. Bokhari said Russia can serve as a public ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The U.S. “can’t work with Assad, because you can’t shake someone’s hand who has the blood of 400,000 people on it,” Bokhari said, referencing chemical weapons attacks Assad has ordered. “(Russia) can still do it.”