Donald Trump Jr wanted dirt on Hillary Clinton 'so badly', Russian lawyer claims

The Russian lawyer whose meeting with Donald Trump’s son has emerged as the first publicly available evidence of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during last year’s election has spoken out.

Natalia Veselnitskaya told NBC News that she “never had any damaging or sensitive information about Hillary Clinton”.

But she confirmed she did meet with Trump Jr. as well as Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort last June to lobby against U.S. legislation that imposes sanctions on Russian nationals.

She said it was quite possible, however, that the Trump team agreed to the meeting in the hope of receiving promised dirt on their electoral rival. “They wanted it so badly that they could only hear the thought that they wanted.”

Donald Trump Jr responded to the interview on Twitter (where else?) describing concern over the meeting as “nonsense”.

The New York Times reported on Monday that before arranging the meeting in the hopes of obtaining damaging information about Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, Trump Jr. was told in an email that the material was part of an effort by the Russian government to help his father’s candidacy.

The email was sent by Rob Goldstone, a British publicist and former tabloid reporter who helped set up the meeting.

Veselnitskaya denied any connection to the Kremlin, despite a history of pushing the Russian government’s agenda and a reputation for having close links to Vladimir Putin’s administration.

The most recent revelations are the most serious yet in a scandal that has engulfed the Trump administration and led to calls for the president to be impeached.

On Tuesday it was also announced that Trump’s state visit to the UK will likely take place next year. The trip was initially scheduled for this year but was seemingly delayed amid the threat of widespread protests.