Russia inquiry: Donald Trump Jr 'couldn't recall' if he told President of 2016 meeting
Donald Trump's son's evidence about the "dirt on Hillary" meeting keeps the Russia story on the boil, says Hannah Thomas-Peter.
Wednesday 16 May 2018 23:35, UK
Today has been awash with Russia headlines.
That's because the Senate judiciary committee, just one of the many groups tasked with investigating any potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to swing the election, has released some transcripts of testimony made before it.
One of the most revealing things in the thousands of pages relates to the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting between, among others, Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, a British publicist called Rob Goldstone and a Russian lawyer who apparently promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.
The testimony reveals that in the heat of a contentious election campaign the Trump team thought nothing of taking a meeting with a foreign national in the hope of undermining a rival.
:: How Russia interferes with the West
Goldstone promised "very interesting" information which was to include documents "that would incriminate Hillary".
In response Trump Jr wrote in an email: "If it's what you say I love it."
The meeting turned out, according to testimony, to be useless.
Mr Trump Jr said that he didn't alert his father ahead of the meeting, and that he "couldn't recall" if he discussed it with him later.
While the meeting may not have been illegal, it displays, at best, poor judgement and a cavalier attitude at the top ranks of the Trump campaign.
Separately the Senate intelligence panel said that after 14 months of investigation it agrees with the 2017 conclusion by US intelligence agencies that Russia interfered with the US election, intending to harm Clinton and help Trump.
That's a slightly different conclusion to the House intelligence panel, which said that it agreed Russia wanted to hurt Clinton, but not necessarily with the aim of helping Trump.
On the face of it there is no huge revelation in any of the various bits of information released today.
They will be spun this way and that way by various partisan groups but whichever way you cut it, Russia is the problem that just will not go away.
The steady drumbeat providing the constant background music to Trump's administration continues - nothing explosive, but a relentless drip of information and interest that must be driving the White House mad.
And silently, ruthlessly, the Department of Justice Robert Mueller probe continues, producing arrests, charges and zero leaks.
The White House has called it a witch hunt.
Whatever type of hunt it is, it is far from over.