The drip, drip is starting to flood.
The drip, drip is starting to flood.
Donald Trump Jr. capped a stunning week of leaks on Tuesday when he released emails showing he knew about the Russian government’s campaign to get his father elected.
The Trump campaign already faced tough questions over the reports that Trump secretly met with a Kremlin lawyer last year hoping to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. Now the stakes are much higher — and the consequences are unclear.
These are the biggest questions after Trump’s email dump:
Trump Jr. knew Hillary Clinton dirt came from Russian government
Questions about Trump Jr.’s potential criminality already surfaced before he published the emails, which erased any doubt on whether he knew about Russia’s pro-Trump plot. President Trump’s political opponents — including Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) , Clinton’s running mate — went as far as saying Trump’s eldest son might have committed treason.
The same legal questions apply to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who joined the meeting with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya.
Michael Gerhardt, a legal professor who testified in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment hearings, told the Daily News the most likely offense would be breaking a federal election law banning campaigns from receiving money or anything “of value” from foreigners.
That could be difficult, though, since Trump Jr. has insisted the attorney turned out to have no information.
Russian lawyer claims Trump Jr. wanted dirt on Clintons
Even so, Gerhardt said it is damning enough that the three Trump associates not only arranged the meeting, but also sat for the whole thing.
« I liken it to someone who broke into a bank and realized no money there, » he said.
« They still broke in. »
It also seems that no one in the Trump campaign alerted authorities after learning of Russia’s campaign. Since Russia’s election interference is now the subject of federal investigations, obstruction of justice is another potential offense.
Trump Jr. releases emails about Russia’s plan to help his father
Calls for Kushner — who now serves as a senior adviser to President Trump — to lose his clearance already started after reports revealed he tried to establish a secret communications channel with the Kremlin.
Now Kushner’s clearance is even more questionable. Of the three Trump associates involved in the meeting, he is the only one holding an official role in the White House.
After 52 House Democrats worried that Kushner was now a threat to “national security, ” his role in the secret sitdown certainly won’ t help.
With his White House role, Kushner faces another unique burden: He had to fill out security clearance forms, in which he failed to disclose any contacts with Russians. The Trump Tower meeting shows that he yet again withheld information from his forms.
Timeline: How the Trump-Russia meeting happened and how it leaked
The Trump Tower meeting is the first confirmed contact between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
That alone contradicts a central claim from the campaign: That no one met with Russians at any point during the 2016 race.
With that promise broken, suspicion inevitably arises about whether the Trump campaign is keeping any other conferences secret, too.
With multiple Trump associates already getting in trouble for undisclosed Russia contacts, that might be a safe bet.
Trump Jr.’s email exchange panned as ‘disturbing’
Trump’s emails landed as Special Counsel Robert Mueller and several congressional committees are probing the Trump campaign.
At the very least, this will now link yet another Trump relative to the probes, after Kushner has already been looped into the investigations. Trump Jr. proclaimed on Twitter that he would be ready to testify before the Senate.
No date has been set, but it seems another blockbuster testimony is waiting in the wings.
The GOP, which controls Congress, has stood behind Trump after every one of his scandals so far.
Kathy Griffin shares photo with man at center of Trump Jr. drama
There’s little indication that he will lose support now, even as Congress members from both sides of the aisle condemned the emails on Tuesday.
But with the Trump-Russia saga taking one of its most dramatic turns yet, President Trump is likely to have a harder time focusing on the policy objectives he has stalled on, such as health care and tax reforms.
Fired FBI Director James Comey has said Trump asked him to “lift the cloud” that the Russia probes cast over his administration. Now, once again, the cloud just grew heavier and darker.
