Don, Jr. meets with Judiciary Committee

Donald Trump, Jr. may be in a heap of trouble because of that June 2016 meeting with the Russians in Trump Tower.   He has given so many different stories about the meeting -- and now he has to tell the truth, or else be vulnerable to perjury charges.

Thursday, Trump, Jr. met for 5 hours in a closed interview with staff and some senators of the Senate Judiciary Committee for questioning about this meeting.   When the meeting first became known about, Don, Jr. released an email chain exchanged with a public relations representative of Russian friends of the Trump family.

The email from the Russians requested a meeting with Don, Jr. in New York with a Russian lawyer who. it said, had evidence of dirt on Hillary Clinton.   The contact also said that it was part of the Russian government's efforts to help his father get elected.   Now why Don, Jr. ever voluntarily made that public is one of the mysteries.   It was so baldly incriminating that I first thought it had to be a plant in some nefarious scheme to fool the media.

The meeting did take place, and the names of the attendees were dribbled out a few at the time -- again raising suspicions.   Ultimately, there were eight names revealed:   Don, Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, the Russian lawyer, the PR friend who arranged the meeting, a Russian-American Washington lobbyist, a Russian businessman with Kremlin connections, and a translator.

The story then changed -- and Donald Trump, Sr. had a hand in the changes -- saying that the meeting was just a discussion about adoption of Russian children by U.S. families, trying to get the restrictions lifted.   Of course, even if that were the real reason, that would be about lifting the sanctions against Russian oligarchs which led Putin to put an end to American adoption of Russian children.

But what about the original stated purpose -- dirt on Hillary Clinton?    The above is nothing new -- just background for this.  Thursday, before meeting with the committee,  Don, Jr. put out a prepared statement in which he now claimed that, yes, the email did mention "dirt" on Clinton, but that his reason for agreeing to the meeting was so that he could determine from this "dirt" whether Clinton -- his father's opponent in the presidential race -- was "fit" to serve as president.   He claimed it was his patriotic duty to get information, if it was offered, that would let the public know if there were reason to doubt Clinton's fitness to be president.  And he would have consulted his lawyer, if such came from the Russians.

How ironic -- since fitness to serve had been an ongoing narrative about Trump himself all during the campaign.   This whole story Trump, Jr. is telling is so unbelievable as to be laughable.   No prosecutor is going to buy it, especially in the context of this campaign and this family.

So that's now at least four different stories about the "why" and "what" of this meeting.  It answers no questions and only raises more.

Chris Hayes had a former CIA operative on to discuss Russian tactics in testing out sources and potential assets.   He said that this meeting was quite consistent with their methods.   He thought it was plausible that this was a "testing of the waters," to see if the Trump campaign was open to working with them.   Don, Jr.'s first response to the initial email -- "If this is what you say I love it" -- told them that they were open to dirt on Clinton.  Then they further tested by not bringing the "dirt,"  If it was a set up to trap the Russians, then there was no evidence against them.

And then the timetable of the release of the hacked emails by Wikipedia occurred fairly soon after this meeting.  And it all fits, timewise, with the events described in the controversial dossier compiled by the former MI-6 spy in England.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who sat in the meeting with the staff, told reporters afterward that Don, Jr. didn't really help the case and that his testimony raised more questions.

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee want to have an open hearing, with Don, Jr. under oath.   Republican Chairman Chuck Grassley has not committed himself yet.   The Senate Intelligence Committee chair has said that his committee wants to interview some of the others that were in the meeting before interviewing Don, Jr.   The strategy there is:  there were eight people in the room.   If their stories don't match, then someone is lying.   Who?  and Why?

 Stay tuned.

Ralph