CNN political analyst and former White House adviser David Gergen said Saturday that the emails released Tuesday by Donald Trump Jr. about his meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign are proof of "one of the most incompetent cover-ups" ever.

"We don't know, of course, whether this meeting brought violations of the law," Gergen said during an interview on CNN. "But we do know in the aftermath there has been a pattern, a very clear pattern of dishonest, misleading statements.

"And that represents stupidity as well, because clearly more was going to come out," Gergen continued. "And for them to issue a statement that makes them all look very innocent about the adoption of children ... and we've now had three versions."

ADVERTISEMENT

On Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. released a chain of emails that showed he met with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, on the premise that she could provide information that “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.”

Trump Jr. was told by British music publicist Rob Goldstone in the emails that the information "is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.”

Gergen said Saturday that the White House response to the situation was probably the fault of the president.



"Donald Trump approved at least two of these misleading statements. And they have been blown out of the water," Gergen charged. "You know, this may go down in history as one of the most incompetent cover-ups we've ever had."

President Trump Donald John TrumpUS reimposes UN sanctions on Iran amid increasing tensions Jeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Trump supporters chant 'Fill that seat' at North Carolina rally MORE issued a brief statement defending his eldest son through his deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday.

“My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency,” Trump said in the statement.