Speculation on Trump Jr.’s Russian collusion escalates

Donald Trump Jr. continued his efforts Tuesday to deflect controversy about a meeting he had with a Russian lawyer at the height of the 2016 presidential election campaign. President Donald Trump’s eldest son hired a lawyer on Monday as new reports continue to allege he met with Natalia Veselnitskaya to collude with the Kremlin. The New York Times reported on Monday that Trump Jr. received an email informing him ahead of the June 2016 meeting that Veselnitskaya wanted to meet with him as part of the Russian government’s effort to boost the Trump campaign. Trump Jr. said this week he agreed to the meeting because he thought Veselnitskaya would share damaging information about his father’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, but he left unimpressed. Veselnitskaya told NBC News on Tuesday that she has no connection to the Russian government and never claimed to have damaging information on Clinton to share: “It’s quite possible that maybe they were looking for such information. They wanted it so badly.” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters on Monday she wants the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has an ongoing probe into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election, to interview Trump Jr. He wrote on Twitter he’s happy to comply with the committee. “Media & Dems are extremely invested in the Russia story,” Trump Jr. added on Tuesday. “If this nonsense meeting is all they have after a yr, I understand the desperation!”