Donald Trump Jr. provided 2 wildly different statements to describe his meeting with a Russian lawyer.
Donald Trump Jr. provided two significantly different statements over the weekend to address a Trump Tower meeting he took with a Russian lawyer last June.
His most recent statement acknowledged that he was promised information on soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
His original statement left out this key point.
His first statement was issued Saturday, as The New York Times revealed the existence of the meeting among Trump Jr., then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, now a senior White House adviser and Trump's son-in-law, and the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
The initial story highlighted the meeting's existence, to which Trump Jr. responded that it "was a short introductory meeting" that focused on "a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government."
But on Sunday, the Times followed up on its original story with the detail that Trump Jr. was promised damaging information about Clinton before agreeing to meet with Veselnitskaya, a Kremlin-connected lawyer.
Three advisers to the White House were were briefed on the meeting, in addition to two others with knowledge of it, told the Times of the promise following the Saturday story confirming the meeting's existence.
Although it was unclear whether Veselnitskaya produced any damaging information on Clinton, the sources who spoke with the Times said she was expected to provide such knowledge.
The new details led to Trump Jr.'s second statement.
In it, he confirmed that the meeting was taken on the premise that Veselnitskaya had information related to Clinton — and that the adoption issue was not what he believed was the purpose of the meeting.