After The New York Times broke the news that Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort met with a Russia lawyer involved with discrediting the the Magnitsky Act, Trump's Chief of Staff Reince Priebus blamed the meeting on the DNC.
On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace asked Priebus, "Why did they meet and why are we just learning about it?"
Priebus started out by saying "I don't know much about it," but then took the time to call the meeting a "nothing burger" and blamed the DNC (with no proof) for setting up the meeting with an apparent Russian operative because Veselnitskaya had hired Fusion GPS.
Priebus said, "It was a very short meeting. It was a meeting apparently about Russian adoption and after about 20 minutes, the meeting ended and that was the end of it."
Jared Kushner initially never disclosed the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, but later amended his filings.
Priebus continued, "...if you look at the article that Circa put out, is that the individual that set up the meeting may have been affiliated with Fusion GPS, which is opposition research firm that is being subpoenaed and talk to by the Senate Judiciary Committee about their role in putting together that phony dossier that people know about in regard to the president."
Apparently the Circa article, which is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, a massive right wing media enterprise is more credible than The New York Times.
By the way, The New York Times story broke the news about Fusion GPS anyway, so why is Reince promoting Circa? For the record, Fusion GPS (a non-partisan investigative and research unit) was originally hired by Republican donors hoping to derail a Trump candidacy, not the DNC or any Democrats. But Priebus isn't going to let facts get in the way of a typically Orwellian spin job.
"So, this is a developing story. I don't know much about it other than it seems to be on the end of the Trump individuals a big nothing burger but may spin out of control for the DNC and the Democrats," Priebus said.
Say, what? Reince said he didn't know anything about the report, but he's sure it'll spin out of control for the Democrats?
Wallace pushed him on why the DNC would have done that since it was way before any news came out about Russia's election interference..
Priebus said, "What I can tell you is in my communication with our team on the subject, there was nothing to it, it was a 20 minute meeting --They moved on. And I think, in the end, what you’re going to find in the story, if you read the Circa column, because I think there’s more questions on the Democrat side than anywhere else."
Why would Trump's top people meet with a Russian attorney, who supposedly doesn't speak English, and is "tied to a Russian holding company that was, at the time of the meeting, under investigation for laundering stolen Russian taxpayer money through American banks and Manhattan real estate."
Wallace asked, "Why would Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort all want to meet with a Russian lawyer about Russian adoption?"
Priebus played dumb again and said, "I have no idea, Chris. You’re going to have to talk to them."
He explained how important a "foreign policy issue" adopting Russian children are, but that's been an important issue for Vladimir Putin, who was furious over the Magnitsky Act and was the person who cut off the Russian adoptions.
According to the president’s son, he “was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.”
I wonder if the acquaintance was Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak?
