In another early morning tweet, Donald Trump appears to have publicly acknowledged that the Trump Tower meeting between agents of the Russian government and top members of his presidential campaign (and family) was indeed to "get information" on his opponent.
This appears to be the first(?) time Trump himself has asserted that the purpose of the meeting, attended by Trump campaign members Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump Jr., was not to discuss "adoptions" or similar flimflammery, but an effort receive Russian information about his election opponent. He appears to be responding to a Washington Post story reporting that he "fearful" that his son may have "inadvertently" violated the law.
Despite tweeted insistence to the contrary, conspiring with a foreign government in this manner is indeed a crime; U.S. law forbids campaigns from receiving things of value from foreign persons or governments. Efforts to cover up the meeting after the fact by lying to federal investigators about its purpose would constitute additional crimes, as would attempts to directly or indirectly obstruct the investigation into the Trump campaign’s actions by, for example, using the presidency to pressure government agents and agencies to halt their investigation.
Over the last year there has been little doubt over the purpose of the meeting, which was arranged by Russian figures explicitly as being "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump", according to the now-released email from Emin Agalarov publicist Rob Goldstone to Donald Trump Jr. This may be the first shift from Trump and his lawyers into an explicit acknowledgement of that glaringly obvious fact–but it also may hint that when push comes to shove, the new battle plan by Trump and his lawyers may be to toss his own son over the side, arguing that even if he engaged in a conspiracy to violate federal election laws, Trump himself "did not know about it!"
