G. Efforts to prevent disclosure of emails re: the June 9th, 2016 Trump Tower with Russians and Trump’s Senior Campaign officials (P. 360/98)
Overview – By June 2017 the President became aware of emails setting up the June 9, 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and Russians who offered derogatory information on Hilary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” On multiple occasions in late June and early July 2017 the President directed aides not to publicly disclose the emails and he then dictated a statement about the meeting to be issued by Donald Trump Jr. describing the meeting as about “adoption.”
Mid-June, 2017 – Senior Administration officials became aware of emails exchanged during the campaign. They showed an attempt to arranging a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner and a Russian attorney. The emails stated that the Russia had offered “to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia” as part of “Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Don Trump Jr. responded, “If it’s what you say, I love it.”
Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort met with the Russian attorney and several other Russian individuals at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016. The Russian attorney claimed that funds derived from illegal activities in Russia were provided to Hillary Clinton and other democrats. The Russian attorney then spoke about the “Magnitsky Act,” a 2012 US statute that imposed financial and travel sanctions on Russian officials. This had resulted in a retaliatory ban in Russia on U.S. adoptions of Russian children.
In his written answer to questions asked regarding the matter by Mueller, the President claimed no recollection of learning about this meeting or the emails setting it up – not at the time the meeting occurred or at any other time before the election.
Trump Organization attorneys became aware of the June 9 meeting no later than the first week of Jun 2017 when they began interviewing the meeting participants. These participants provided the emails setting up the meeting to the President’s personal counsel, Mark Corallo, who had been hired as a spokesperson for the President’s personal legal team. Corallo recalled that he learned about this June 9, 2016 meeting around June 21 or 22 2017. Priebus recalled learning about the June 9 meeting from Fox News in late June 2017. Priebus notified the President’s personal attorneys who told him that they were already working on it.
Jun 22, 2017 – Hope Hicks, Communications, attended a meeting in the White House residence with Trump, Kushner and Ivanka Trump. According to Hicks, Kushner said that he wanted to fill the President in on something that had been discovered in documents he was providing to Congressional committees involving the June 9, 2016 meeting. Kushner brought a folder of documents to the meeting and tried to show them to Trump but the President stopped Kushner and said he did not want to know about it, shutting the conversation down.
June 28, 2017 - But Hope Hicks viewed the Kushner emails. She was shocked by them because they looked “really bad.” The next day, Hicks spoke privately with Trump to mention her concern about the documents son-in-law wanted to share and which she understood were going to be shared with Congress. The President seemed upset because too many people knew about the emails and he told Hicks that just one lawyer should deal with the matter.
Later that day Hicks, Kushner and Ivanka Trump went to see Trump together. Hicks recalled that Kushner told Trump the June 9 meeting was not a big deal and was about Russian adoption, but that emails existed setting up the meeting. Trump said he did not want to know about it. Hicks warned the President that the emails were “really bad” and the story would be “massive” when it broke, but the President was insistent that he did not want to talk about it and said he did not want details. Hicks later said the President had directed the meeting group not to be pro-active in disclosing the emails because he did not believe they would be leaked.
July 7, 2017 – Trump left overseas for trip to G20 summit with an entourage including Hope Hicks. While overseas, Hicks learned that the New York Times was working on a story about the Jun 9, 2016 meeting.
July 8, 2017 – Hicks tells Trump about the NYT story. Trump directed her not to comment. Hicks thought the reaction was odd because Trump usually considered not responding to the press the ultimate sin. Hicks and Trump spoke again latter that travel-day about the NYT story. Trump asked what the meeting had been described as. Hicks told him she had been told the meeting was about Russian adoption. The President responded, “then just say that.”
On the flight home from the G20 summit Hope Hicks obtained a draft statement about the meeting to be released by Trump Jr. She brought this draft to Trump who told Hicks to say only that Don Trump Jr. “took a brief meeting” about Russian adoption. After speaking to Trump, Hicks texted Trump Jr. a revised version of the June 9 meeting which read: “It was a short meeting. I asked Jared and Paul Manafort to stop by. We discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at that time and there was no follow up.” Hicks concluded: “are you OK with this attributed to you?”
Hicks also learns that Priebus knew about the emails which further convinced Hicks that additional information about the June 9 meeting would leak. She felt the White House should be proactive and get in front of the story. She again went to the President to urge him to be transparent. Again Trump said, “no,” telling Hicks, “you’ve given a statement. We’re done.” Later, during the flight home, Hicks went to the President’s cabin where she found him on the phone with his personal attorneys. Trump handed her the phone and his attorney told Hicks not to talk to the New York Times.
July 9, 2017 – Hicks and Trump called Corallo together and Trump criticizing him for the draft of the initial statement. Corallo responded to Trump saying the statement had been authorized and further added that Trump Jr.’s statement was inaccurate and that there was a document that would contradict it.
July 11, 2017 - Trump Jr. posted redacted images of the emails setting up the June 9 meeting on Twitter. The NYT reported he did so after being told that The Times was about to publish the content of the emails. The media reported that the President had been personally involved in preparing Trump Jr.’s initial statement to the NYT that claimed the meeting “primarily” concerned “a program about the adoption of Russian children.”
Over the next several days Trump’s personal attorney repeatedly and inaccurately denied that the President played any role in drafting Trump Jr.’s statement. After talking to Trump, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told the media the President “certainly didn’t dictate” the statement, but that “he weighed in, offered suggestions like any father would do.” Several months later the President’s personal attorney stated in a private communication to the Special Counsel that “the President dictated a short but accurate response to the NYT article on behalf of his son.” The President later told the press it was “irrelevant” whether he dictated the statement and said, “it’s a statement to the NYT..that’s not a statement to a high tribunal of judges.”
July 18, 2017 - redacted
July 19, 2017 – the President had a follow-up meeting with Lewandowski and then met with reporters for the New York Times. In addition to criticizing Sessions in his Times interview, Trump addressed the Jun 9, 2016 meeting and said he “didn’t know anything about the meeting” at the time. The President added, “as I’ve said, most other people, you know, when they call up and say, “by the way, we have information on your opponent,’ I think most politicians – I was just with a lot of people, they said…’Who wouldn’t have taken a meeting like that?”
Summary: On at least three occasions between June 29 2017 and July 9 2017 the President directed Hope Hicks and others not to publicly disclose information about the Jun 9, 2016 meeting. On June 29 Hicks warned Trump the emails were “really bad” and the story would be “massive” when it broke. The President told her and Kushner to “leave it alone.” The President dictated a statement to Hicks that said the meeting was about Russian adoption (which the President had twice been told was discussed at the meeting). The statement previously dictated to Hicks by Trump did not mention the offer of “dirt” on Clinton.
Each of these efforts by Trump involved his communications team and was directed to the Press. They would amount to obstructive acts only if Trump, by taking these actions, sought to withhold information from or mislead congressional investigators or the Special Counsel. The only evidence the President discussed production of documents to Congress or the Special Counsel is the conversation on June 29, 2017 when Hicks recalled the President acknowledging that Kushner’s attorney should provide emails related to the June 9th meeting to whomever he needed to give them. There is no evidence of what the President discussed with his own lawyers at the time.
The evidence establishes the President’s substantial involvement in the communications strategy related to his campaign’s connection to Russia and his desire to minimize public disclosures about those connections. The President was aware of the emails no later than Jun 29, 2018 when he discussed them with Hicks and Kushner. He could have been aware of them as early as Jun 2, 2017, when lawyers for the Trump Organization began interviewing those who participated in the Jun 9 meeting. The President thereafter repeatedly rejected the advice of Hicks and other staffers to publicly release information about the Jun 9 meeting. The President dictated a statement to be released by Trump Jr. in response to the first press accounts of the Jun 9 meeting and said the meeting was about adoption.
However, the evidence does not establish that the President intended to prevent the Special Counsel’s office or Congress from obtaining the emails re: setting up the June 9 meeting. The statement recorded by Corallo – that the emails “will never get out” – can be explained as reflecting a belief that the emails would not be made public if the President’s press strategy were followed, even if the emails were provided to Congress and the Special Counsel.
(Tomorrow: H. Trumps further efforts to have the Attorney General take over the Mueller investigation)