Donald Trump Jr. himself revealed the incriminating email exchange regarding a meeting with a Russian lawyer — claiming transparency. | Getty 45 After Dark: What Have You Don edition

First it was the meeting. Then it was what the meeting was about.

Today, it was the emails that led up to the meeting — messages that made clear to Donald Trump Jr. that a meeting he was taking about information on Hillary Clinton seemed to originate with the Russian government. The response of President Donald Trump’s oldest son?: “ Love it. ”


Trump Jr. himself revealed the incriminating email exchange — claiming transparency, but also after New York Times reporters apparently told him they were publishing an article about the emails.

The unfurling saga of Donald Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer dogged the White House for a fourth straight day, miring the West Wing in yet more Russia chaos. President Trump himself responded for the first time — via a statement — praising his son for being “transparent” and calling him a “high quality person.”

Transparent, or not, Donald Jr.’s email exchange may be a so-called smoking gun, veteran prosecutors and other say, the sort of thing that provides grist for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

“The smoking gun, according to the attorneys, is the wording throughout the emails that Trump Jr. exchanges with a broker for one of his father’s former Russian business partners,” POLITICO’s Darren Samuelsohn reports. “At one point, Trump Jr. responds ‘love it’ at the prospect of material that would ‘incriminate’ Clinton.”

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Elsewhere in President Trump’s orbit:

IMPERFECT VESEL?: The Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who met with Donald Trump Jr., says that she never had any incriminating information on Hillary Clinton and that wasn’t why she wanted a meeting. (NBC)

GETTING REPEAL NOW: Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell still doesn’t have the votes but he’s pressing for a repeal vote on Obamacare next week to try and wedge the bill through.

AUGUST ANGST: McConnell also announced that he was scrapping the first two weeks of August recess, because Congress has more it needs to get done.

COHN OF SILENCE: Gary Cohn, President Trump’s National Economic Council director, is a top candidate to take over the Fed from Janet Yellen if he wants the job — which is not yet clear.

OH HAIDER: President Trump called Iraqi President Haider al-Abadi to congratulate him for the liberation of Mosul from ISIS forces. Meanwhile, a top U.S. General says there’s no evidence that the leader of ISIS is still alive.

KAS-OFF: The Trump administration is restricting products from popular Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab.

There you have it. You’re caught up on the Trump administration. Happy Monday.

