Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, agreed to meet with a Kremlin-linked lawyer during the 2016 campaign after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing three advisers to the White House.

Trump’s then campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner also attended the meeting, the Times reported.

The Times quoted a statement from Donald Jr in which he acknowledged meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

“After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms Clinton,” the Times quoted Donald Jr as saying. Clinton was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.

“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.”

Profile Who is Natalia Veselnitskaya? Show Accusations Natalia Veselnitskaya is the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort at Trump Tower on 9 June 2016. Trump Jr has published emails showing Veselnitskaya was introduced to him as a “Russian government attorney” who had damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Background Veselnitskaya is a defence lawyer based just outside Moscow, whose main client in recent years has been Denis Katsyv, a businessman accused of profiting from a major tax fraud uncovered by lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. She fought his case in US courts and mounted a PR campaign to try to clear Katsyv’s name and overturn the “Magnitsky Act” sanctions against Russian officials that followed. The big question Veselnitskaya is not a government official and portrays herself as a lawyer with a private client. The question, then, is how she was able to secure the meeting at Trump Tower during a presidential campaign and why she was introduced to Trump Jr as representing the Russian government.

President Trump was “not aware of and did not attend” the meeting, a spokesman for his legal team said.

Veselnitskaya, whose clients reportedly include Russian state-owned businesses and a senior government official’s son, said in a statement on Saturday that “nothing at all about the presidential campaign” was discussed. She had “never acted on behalf of the Russian government” and “never discussed any of these matters with any representative of the Russian government”, according to the Times.

Allegations of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia have cast a shadow over Trump’s first five months in office, distracting from attempts by his fellow Republicans in Congress to overhaul the US healthcare and tax systems.



The Kremlin has denied US intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Moscow tried to tilt the election in Trump’s favor, using such means as hacking into the emails of senior Democrats. Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion, and has said contradictory things about whether he believes Russia was responsible.

Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, which is conducting one of the current congressional investigations into Russia’s interference in the election and its possible links to the Trump team, said on Sunday his committee was willing to call Trump’s son, Kushner and Manafort, to answer questions about the meeting with Veselnitskaya.

“It certainly raises questions for a variety of reasons,” said Schiff.

Reuters contributed to this report