Latest News on Donald Trump Jr. Sparks A Trump Tweet Rant About the “Witch Hunt”

The president responds to the “failing and crooked” New York Times’ “boring” scoop

Evan Vucci/AP

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On Saturday, the New York Times reported that Donald Trump Jr. took a second, previously undisclosed meeting during the 2016 presidential election to discuss an overture from a foreign government—this time with an emissary from princes in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

It’s a pretty damning story, at first glance. But on Sunday President Donald Trump offered alternative read on it—it actually vindicates him, because the disclosure of the meeting meant that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the election had gone nowhere.

The story never actually says that, because that doesn’t make any sense. Mueller’s probe has already indicted 19 people—including 13 Russian nationals—and wrung a guilty plea from the president’s first national security adviser. His campaign manager has been indicted. And the Times story notes that Mueller was investigating this second meeting specifically to see if it, too, had been coordinated in some way with the Russians.

As is often the case, Trump opted to deflect from the contents of the story by calling for his political critics to be investigated instead:

 

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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