Donald Trump's son posts bombshell emails saying he'd 'love' Russian dirt on Clinton

Donald Trump’s eldest son has released a bombshell email chain that shows him discussing plans to hear damaging information about Hillary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump”.

The emails are the first documentary evidence of a top Trump associate knowingly engaging with what they believed to be a Russian government effort to help Mr Trump in the 2016 election.

Donald Jr’s bizarre admission, seemingly accidental, follows a New York Times report alleging President Trump‘s eldest son met with a Russian lawyer last June with the intention of obtaining incriminating information about Clinton.

On Saturday, Donald Jr sought to downplay the significance of the meeting.

The emails now reveal he had been told highly sensitive information was being made available to the Trump campaign as part of a Russian government effort to help elect his father.

In his statement accompanying the screenshots of emails between him and British publicist Rob Goldstone, Donald Jr reiterates the claim made by the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and the Kremlin that she has no links to the Russian government.

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However, in one email she is introduced to Trump as a “Russian government attorney”, while another claims the purported dirt on Clinton is from the Crown Prosecutor of Russia. Most damning, though, is this line: “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

In a response that may go down in lore, Trump Jr.’s reaction to the promise of help from a foreign adversary was clear: “If it’s what you say”, he explained, “I love it”.

The emails lay bare a series of now-discredited denials from the Trump campaign, most notably Trump Jr. himself describing claims that Russia helped the Trump campaign as “disgusting” and “phony” just weeks after his now-infamous meeting.

The email chain also calls into question the roles played by then-Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort — who eventually resigned from the campaign amid controversy over his role promoting Kremlin interests in Ukraine — and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, both of whom have denied any prior knowledge of the meeting.

The screenshots show they were in fact forwarded the incredible emails ahead of time.

Even more intriguingly, Goldstone tells Trump Jr. he can “also send this info to your father…but it is ultra-sensitive so wanted to send to you first.”

On Saturday, Mr Trump Jr described the encounter as being a “short introductory meeting” focused on the disbanded programme that had allowed American adoptions of Russian children.

Moscow ended the adoptions in response to Magnitsky Act sanctions created in response to alleged human rights violations in Russia.

A day later, Mr Trump Jr changed his account, acknowledging that he was told beforehand that Ms Veselnitskaya might have information “helpful” to the Trump campaign, and was told by her during the meeting that she had something about Mrs Clinton.

In his third description of what occurred, on Tuesday, he said he had believed the information he would hear about Mrs Clinton would be political opposition research.

He said that he first wanted to speak by phone, but that when that did not work out, he was told that the lawyer would be in New York “and I decided to take the meeting”.

“The woman, as she has said publicly, was not a government official,” Mr Trump Jr said in the statement on Tuesday.

“And, as we have said, she had no information to provide and wanted to talk about adoption policy and the Magnitsky Act.”

It wasn’t entirely clear what possessed Trump Jr. to publish the emails, but it seems the decision may have been motivated by the New York Times having obtained the emails themselves. One reporter was not exactly thrilled.