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This weekend the New York Times published a pretty big story about a previously undisclosed meeting between members of Donald Trump’s campaign and a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. The meeting took place shortly after Trump had clinched the Republican presidential nomination and Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. were in attendance, along with then-campaign chief Paul Manafort. The NYT noted that both Kushner and Trump Jr. confirmed the meeting took place, linking it to Russian adoption.
During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said that the meeting was a “nothingburger” for the Trump team while suggesting it could have been an attempt by Democrats to set up the Trump campaign, linking it to the infamous Steele dossier.
Pointing to previous statements made by Trump outside counsel Mark Corallo in which the lawyer said they’d seen hints that the Russian attorney misrepresented who she was working for and that it may have been part of a Dem opposition effort, Priebus noted that this could hurt the Democratic Party in the future.
“I don’t know much about it other than it seems to be on the end of the Trump individuals a nothingburger but may spin out of control for the DNC and the Democrats,” Priebus told host Chris Wallace.
When pressed later by Wallace why the Trump team even would have wanted to meet with a Russian attorney about the issue of adoption, Priebus said he had no idea and that Wallace would have to “talk to them.”