Story highlights The Democratic Senator cited a "continuing pattern" of campaign officials having "conveniently forgotten" meetings

He added that this is the first public evidence of senior officials having met with Russians to try to discredit Clinton

Washington (CNN) The vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Monday that Donald Trump Jr.'s acknowledgment of a meeting with a Russian lawyer last June is the first clear public evidence that senior Trump campaign officials met with Russians to try to discredit Hillary Clinton.

"This is the first time that the public has seen clear evidence of senior level members of the Trump campaign meeting Russians to try to obtain information that might hurt the campaign of Hillary Clinton," Sen. Mark Warner told reporters.

Trump Jr. acknowledged Sunday that he met with a Russian lawyer who he had been told "might have information helpful to the campaign." The President's oldest son issued his statement in response to The New York Times's reporting that he "was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton" before agreeing to meet with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting with Veselnitskaya, according to Trump Jr., but he said he told them "nothing of the substance" prior to the meeting. Trump Jr. said it quickly became clear during the meeting that Veselnitskaya had no information he deemed meaningful and that Veselnitskaya primarily wanted to secure the meeting to talk about a law pertaining to adoptions.

But Warner said Monday that Trump Jr.'s acknowledgment of the meeting reveals a "continuing pattern" of Trump campaign and administration officials having "conveniently forgotten" meetings they had with Russians.

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