The liberal mainstream media can hardly contain their gleefulness over the “mess” Donald Trump Jr. finds himself in regarding his alleged connections to the Russian government and efforts to help his father’s presidential campaign last year.
But, there are a lot of key facts that have been buried in the reporting or just aren’t mentioned at all, seemingly on purpose, because they would detract from the Russia narrative that is now on its eighth life over the past 18 months. Here are four of those facts, for your consideration:
1. The Meeting Wasn’t Illegal
As private citizen, even one who is engaged in a family member’s presidential campaign, is free to engage with any other human being in conversation, even those from foreign countries. Additionally, you can talk about any subject matter you want. The Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was there to lobby on behalf of her client, a Russian company sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions in retaliation for Russian aggression in the Baltic region.
George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley said Monday night on FOX News Channel that such a meeting is not illegal:
I mean, the criminal code has defined elements to it. You just don’t find these ambiguous crimes. Some people have said this could be treason. For the love of God, treason is defined in the Constitution. This is not treason. Other people have said this could be a Logan Act violation. Well, Logan Act has been used once in 200 years and is facially unconstitutional. One said, well, if you take things of tangible value under the campaign laws and treat information like that, then maybe you have a campaign contribution violation. Well, yeah, but we haven’t seen that done. You could also treat it like a panda and say it’s an endangered species violation, but courts haven’t done that. So, I think that people need to take a breath.
2. The Attorney May Be Lying
The Associated Press was the first to report that Veselnitskaya came to Trump Tower with the purpose of sharing damaging information about Clinton. The alleged improprieties in the Democratic Party’s fundraising efforts have already been widely reported, so if that’s all the attorney had, it’s the political equivalent of low-hanging fruit.
Veselnitskaya said, in an exclusive interview with MSBNC on Monday night, that is a lie:
I never had any damaging or sensitive information about Hillary Clinton. It was never my intention to have that …
It is quite possible that maybe they were longing for such an information. They wanted it so badly that they could only hear the thought that they wanted.
Don Jr. admitted the attorney provided information about the opposing campaign, but that it “went nowhere.” The admission seems to suggest the president used his eldest son as a gatekeeper during the campaign, and his son was feeling out the attorney to see what she really wanted to talk about, and perhaps that’s how the attorney got the proverbial foot through the door at Trump Tower.
3. More Harm Than Good—For Hillary
But even if Veselnitskaya had damaging information about Clinton and it was useful to the Trump campaign, that’s still not illegal. And if we’re going to be completely honest, that would do more harm than good for the former secretary of state. Keep in mind she still faces an investigation by the State Department and possibility of permanently losing her security clearance.
That’s over her misuse of her private email server and the less-than-forthright manner in which she has cooperated with congressional and FBI investigations into the matter. Veselnitskaya allegedly—according to the liberal mainstream media reports—had information about illegal campaign contributions to the Democratic National Committee.
You have to look hard to find it, but there have been a few news sources that have been reporting on these alleged improprieties. Some have attempted to tie this into the Seth Rich murder in Washington, D.C., while others have steered clear of that conspiracy theory. But these allegations would be the political equivalent of low-hanging fruit, particularly for an electorate already well-versed in improprieties like the “Clinton Cash” story and pay for play at the Clinton Foundation.
4. ‘The Email’ May Not Exist
To further the claim—despite Veselnitskaya’s claims otherwise—that Don Jr. was alerted to Russian efforts to undermine former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign, The New York Times reported Monday night that the president’s son was “the first to know” about Russian collusion via an email. But what’s buried in that report is the fact that no one from the newspaper has seen this alleged email.
In fact, you have to make that realization on your own by reading between the lines of what The Times actually reported:
Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email. {eoa}
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