Trump censures US media for ‘distorting democracy’

US President Donald Trump has slammed what he refers to as “fake news” over the coverage of a meeting between his son and a Russian attorney to get damaging information about the opponent of the then-GOP candidate ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

The president made the comments on Sunday as his attorney Jay Sekulow, appeared on multiple morning news programs, asserting that he is unaware of any other such meetings by Donald Trump, Jr.

“HillaryClinton [sic] can illegally get the questions to the Debate & delete 33,000 emails but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media?” the president said in a series of posts on Twitter. “With all of its phony unnamed sources & highly slanted & even fraudulent reporting, #Fake News is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country!”

Since the 2016 campaign, Trump has repeatedly used the term "fake news" largely for any coverage criticizing him or his allies.

'No illegal meeting'

The Trump administration is currently under pressure over recent revelations about a meeting between Trump Jr. and a Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, with the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, also present at Trump Tower in the summer of 2016.

The revelations came amid an investigation to find out whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump associates during the 2016 campaign and transition.

Trump’s lawyer (pictured above) has, meanwhile, told CNN that there were no other such meetings “that I know of.”

Sekulow asserted that there was nothing illegal about that meeting either.

The attorney further referred to news that the Trump campaign spent $50,000 on Trump Jr.’s attorney, Alan Futerfas, ahead of the recent revelations by The New York Times.

“In a situation like this, this is not an unusual situation where the individual that is being questioned, or subject to question, Donald Trump Jr., retains counsel,” Sekulow said. “It involved an incident that involved an email campaign and a meeting when he was working, doing work for the campaign, so that to me is not an unusual scenario or an unusual set-up at all. But I — look, I don’t know the final determination of who’s paying what bills to whom. I mean, I think that’s still in process.”

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In a declassified report released in January, the intelligence community concluded that Russia helped with the New York billionaire’s campaign effort ahead of winning the White House, an allegation dismissed both by Moscow and Trump.

Trump is now being accused of obstructing justice in the investigation process, in part by dismissing the FBI director at the helm of the probe.

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