Trump admits son met Russian lawyer for information on Clinton
US President Donald Trump has admitted his oldest son met a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer in June 2016 to collect information about his then political opponent Hillary Clinton, but argues it was legal.
Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York City could constitute a breach of US election campaign rules, experts say.
On Sunday, several US news organizations reported that Trump was worried his son could be in legal trouble because of the meeting. They cited several unnamed sources.
"Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower," Trump responded in a Sunday tweet.
"This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!", he added.
Trump's latest tweet appears to contradict a previous statement from his son about the meeting. When the meeting was first reported by The New York Times, Trump Jr. said in a statement that he and Veselnitskaya had mostly discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.
Democratic Party lawmakers in Congress slammed the president over his admission.
"The Russians offered damaging info on your opponent. Your campaign accepted. And the Russians delivered," tweeted Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
"You then misled the country about the purpose of the Trump Tower meeting when it became public. Now you say you didn't know in advance. None of this is normal or credible," he wrote.
The meeting is being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of a federal investigation into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election to help Trump win.
Trump and his allies have tried to discredit the probe, but legal experts have pointed out several possible criminal charges, including conspiracy against the United States for accepting anything of value from a foreign government or foreign national.
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