Trump campaign paid Donald Trump Jr.’s lawyer weeks before Russian meeting was revealed
Almost two weeks before Donald Trump Jr. published screengrabs of purported emails indicating that he arranged to meet with a Russian lawyer, President Trump’s re-election campaign paid $50,000 in legal fees to the attorney now representing the president’s son amid ongoing Russia probes.
The payment was revealed in a Q2 FEC report filed on Saturday by the Trump campaign. On June 27, criminal defense attorney Alan Futerfas was paid by the campaign for “legal consulting.” On July 10, Futerfas was hired to represent Trump.
However, the FEC filing doesn’ t indicate that the June 27 disbursement of funds to Futerfas was made for the purpose of representing Trump.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr . tweeted four pages from what he said is an email chain with music producer Rob Goldstone. The messages appear to show Trump being offered damning information about Hillary Clinton in the heat of the 2016 presidential race. In response, Trump wrote, “I love it.”
What we know about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign
Futerfas is known for representing individuals and companies in “traditional and white collar cases, trials and appeals, SEC investigations and regulatory matters, ” according to his firm’s website. Throughout his career Futerfas has represented individuals accused of involvement in organized crime.
In a statement when the news broke of Trump’s meeting with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, Futerfas said that it was „much ado about nothing.“
„The bottom line is that Don, Jr. did nothing wrong, “ Futerfas said in a statement this week.
Trump has not been accused of any legal wrongdoing. On Tuesday he expressed regret for how he handled the June 2016 meeting, telling Fox News‘ Sean Hannity in an interview that he „probably would have done things a little differently.“
According to the FEC report, the Trump campaign also paid the Trump Corporation almost $90,000 for “legal consulting.” The Trump campaign started the quarter with over $8 million, and spent $4.3 million.
ABC News‘ Adam Kelsey contributed to this report.
