“If it’s what you say, I love it.”
- Jul 8, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 9, 2024
July 9: On This Day In 2017
OTDI 2017, The New York Times revealed that a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, promised to give the Trump campaign compromising information on Hillary Clinton.
She wrote to Don Jr. that her info “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.” The information “is obviously very high level and … part of Russia and its government support for Mr. Trump.”
According to the NYT, Don, Jr. responded “within minutes” with “If it’s what you say I love it …”
And that’s how the top braintrust of the 2016 Trump campaign – Don Jr., Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and the campaign chairman Paul Manafort – came to welcome Veselnitskaya to a warm meeting in Trump Tower.
Why was this so wrong? Donald Trump constantly screamed there was “no collusion” with Russia. But his whole argument was a bait-and-switch. The law doesn’t talk about “collusion.” What it does say is that “foreign nationals are prohibited from participating in decisions involving election-related activities.”
It's Mueller Time: Once it became clear that Russians had aided Trump’s campaign in multiple ways, Robert Mueller was appointed to oversee the investigation. That Trump Tower meeting loomed large in his investigation.
Paul Manafort was ultimately indicted, as were 25 Russian nationals and three Russian “entities.” (Trump himself was spared, it seems, because it’s government policy not to indict a sitting president, so Mueller didn’t fully investigate the question of Trump’s guilt).
For his various crimes, Manafort plead guilty and was sentenced to 7.5 years in federal prison. (Evidence suggests Manafort also passed key election-related info to Putin’s friend, thereby enabling Russia to focus their election interference efforts with laser precision where it would matter most).
In a development that surprised nobody, Manafort was pardoned in 2020 by the outgoing president: Donald “No Collusion” Trump. On the same day, Trump also pardoned Jared Kushner's father.
Dive Deeper
Jo Becker, Matt Apuzzo, and Adam Goldman of The New York Times revealed the Trump Tower meeting. Between the three of them, they have won seven Pulitzer Prizes.
Those three also reported on the Russian email sent to Don Jr
The Hill provided a useful chronology of the Mueller investigation
NBC News summarized Mueller’s findings
Summary: If it’s what you say, I love it. The Trump Family accepts help from Russia