White House Says Trump Only ‘Weighed in On’ Son’s Misleading Russia Statement ‘Like Any Father Would’
Sarah Huckabee Sanders Claims Trump Weigh in ‘As Any Father Would, Based on the Limited Information He Had’
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is disputing Monday night’s reporting from The Washington Post that revealed President Donald Trump “dictated” the statement given to the New York Times about Donald Trump Jr’s meeting last year with a Russian lawyer and other Russians.
President Trump merely “weighed in on” the drafting of Donald Jr’s statement, “as any father would, based on the limited information he had,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at Tuesday’s daily press briefing. That claim is in direct contradiction to what the Washington Post had reported.
Huckabee Sanders further disputed the Washington Post’s reporting, claiming “there’s no inaccuracy in the statement.”
.@SHSanders45: Trump Jr’s statement on meeting with Russian lawyer “was true,” Trump “weighed in as any father would,” with limited info. pic.twitter.com/hTSQxeaita
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 1, 2017
That’s demonstrably false, as Donald Trump Jr posted the emails that revealed the goal of the meeting was to obtain “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, not to address Russian adoptions.
“Flying home from Germany on July 8 aboard Air Force One, Trump personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr. said that he and the Russian lawyer had ‘primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children’ when they met in June 2016, according to multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations,” The Washington Post had reported Monday night.
President Trump’s personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, told NBC News’ “Meet the Press†on July 16, “I do want to be clear — that the president was not involved in the drafting of the statement and did not issue the statement.”
THE WHITE HOUSE just contradicted TRUMP’S LAWYER on whether Trump was involved in drafting his son’s misleading statement on Russia meeting: pic.twitter.com/wsBov6FuDK
— Marshall Cohen (@Marshall_Cohen) August 1, 2017
That was one of several times Sekulow claimed President Trump was not involved int he drafting of the statement.
Former Chief Bush ethics lawyer weighs in:
What kind of a man drafts a false statement for his own son about a matter under criminal investigation? A man who can pardon his son.
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) August 1, 2017
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