Donald Trump Jr. refused on Wednesday to provide a congressional committee details of a July telephone conversation with his father about a meeting last year at which Trump campaign officials had expected to receive damaging information from the Russian government about Hillary Clinton.
Testifying in a closed session before the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Trump claimed that his conversation over the summer with his father, two days after The New York Times disclosed the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan, was protected under attorney-client privilege because lawyers for both men were on the call.
What, if anything, Donald J. Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting as a presidential candidate — and his role in drafting a misleading statement about it once he was president and it became public — are key questions for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russian interference in the election.
The problem with that whole attorney client privilege thing is that it really does not protect Junior in this situation.
Here let the venerable John Dean explain it:
If anybody would know about the limitations of the attorney client privilege it would be John Dean.Donald Trump Jr. claimed attny-client privilege in today before the House Intel Committee re discussions with his father based on the apparent fact an attny was present. Problem: (1) Jr. has no such privilege; (2) Congress does not recognize the privilege even when it exists.— John Dean (@JohnWDean) December 7, 2017
And why is this important?
Courtesy of Mother Jones:
During eight hours of questioning by the House intelligence committee on Wednesday, Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged that he and his father had discussed news of his controversial 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer after the New York Times revealed the secret sitdown this summer. But he refused to disclose the contents of their conversations.
Trump Jr. “acknowledged having discussed the June 9 meeting and the emails that went into establishing that meeting after those emails became public,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, told reporters after Trump Jr.’s interview with the panel.
“He acknowledged discussing that meeting with his father.”
The admission by his Trump’s eldest son raises the question of how closely the Trumps coordinated on their response to the bombshell revelations and could bolster the case that President Trump participated in an effort to craft a false public explanation for the Trump Tower meeting. Trump Jr.’s initial statement about the meeting, reportedly dictated by his father on Air Force One during a July 8 flight from Germany, inaccurately claimed that the discussion focused on adoption.
So finding out what was said during that phone call would likely prove that Trump and Junior conspired to cover up what that meeting was about, which of course we now know had really nothing to do with Russian adoptions.
And the kicker is that I would bet my house that Robert Mueller already knows exactly what Donnie and his son talked about that day, and is simply waiting for the proper moment to spring it on them in court.
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