Donald Trump contradicts his son and suggests he knew about Russian lawyer meeting

The President has been accused of changing his position as to whether or not he knew about his eldest son’s meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer at which members of the Trump campaign expected to receive incriminating material about Hillary Clinton.

In an interview with Reuters, Mr Trump said he knew nothing about the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, until he read about it in the New York Times.

“No, that I didn’t know until a couple of days ago when I heard about this,” he said.

Yet ThinkProgress has pointed out that while Mr Trump was on Air Force One and on his way for a meeting in Paris with his French counterpart Emanuel Macron, the President’s position on the issue appeared to shift - at least a little.

In comments that reporters initially believed were off the record, Mr Trump said of his learning of the meeting that was also attended by Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort: “In fact maybe it was mentioned at some point.”

He added: “They talked about the adoption stuff which was actually a big thing at the time but nothing happened.” He said he was not informed that the meeting had been held because the Trump campaign members believed they were to be given incriminating material on Ms Clinton provided by elements of the Russian establishment.

Mr Trump was asked if he supported his son’s offer to speak with Capitol Hill investigators looking into the issue. “I think if he wants to,” he said.

Mr Trump added: “Honestly, in a world of politics, most people are going to take that meeting. If somebody called and said, hey - and you’re a Democrat - and by the way, they have taken them - hey, I have really some information on Donald Trump.

“You’re running against Donald Trump. Can I see you? I mean, how many people are not going to take the meeting?”