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Donald Trump Jr at Trump Tower, New York. SIPA USA/PA Images

Trump says Donald Jr is a 'high quality person' and applauds his 'transparency' on Russian meeting

The FBI are currently investigating whether Trump’s administration aided Russia in their attempts to influence the 2016 US election.

Updated 10.10pm

US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said that his eldest son, Donald Jr, is a ”a high-quality person,” and he applauds “his transparency.”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a brief statement from the president today in response to revelations that Trump Jr agreed to hear damaging information on Hillary Clinton as part of the Russian government’s effort to help his father.

Earlier today, Trump’s eldest son released emails showing he embraced Russia’s efforts to support his father’s presidential campaign, and admitting he would “love” to get dirt from Moscow on Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump Jr was told by an interlocutor that he could get “very high level and sensitive information” that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

Trump, 39, responded “if it’s what you say I love it” and set up a meeting with the source, according to the emails.

The email chain, released in its entirety by Donald Jr on his Twitter account shortly before The New York Times published it, effectively confirms that he believed Moscow was behind the compromising information about Clinton that he hoped to receive at a meeting last year with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer.

The disclosure places the president’s son at the center of a burgeoning scandal involving multiple US investigations into whether Trump associates colluded with Russia last year in its covert efforts to tip the 2016 elections to the Republican billionaire.

Donald Jr had initially dismissed the meeting he arranged with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, as having to do with adoptions, but then offered shifting explanations as more details emerged.

In the emails released today, Rob Goldstone, a publicist close to the Trumps, tells Donald Jr that he has learned of a Russian offer of compromising material on Clinton from a pop singer he represented, Emin Agalorov.

“The Crown Prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” Goldstone wrote in a June 3, 2016 email.

“This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government support for Mr. Trump - helped along by Aras and Emin,” he added.

Donald Jr responded less than 20 minutes later, according to the chain of emails entitled “Russia – Clinton – private and confidential.”

“Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

In an interview with NBC News, Veselnitskaya said: “It’s possible that maybe they were looking for such information” about the Clinton campaign.

“They wanted it so badly,” she added.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a mass effort to tilt the election in Trump’s favor, including hacking and leaking embarrassing emails from Democrats.

The New York Times reported that Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, two of Trump’s most trusted campaign officials, also attended the meeting with Veselnitskaya and Donald Jr last year.

The Kremlin has said it “did not know who” Veselnitskaya was.

“We can’t be aware of all the meetings Russian lawyers have abroad,” said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

© AFP 2017

With reporting from the Associated Press

Read: ‘It went nowhere but I had to listen’: Trump Jr met Russian lawyer for information on Hillary Clinton

Read: ‘Not the dumbest idea, but close’ – Trump plan for US-Russia cyber unit mocked

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    Mute Ray James Franco Browne
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    Jul 31st 2017, 12:54 PM

    In my bedroom/living room in front of my tv because I live in a bedsit. If I had a separate dining room I would eat there, just to have something different.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:31 PM

    @Ray James Franco Browne:

    That’s a bit like me. I usually have my breakfast in the breakfast room, my lunch in the sunroom and my dinner in the dining room. Our breakfast room is currently under refurbishment so I now have to eat my breakfast in the dining room! It’s like a madhouse at the moment! I’ve put Geoffrey on notice and told him that I don’t know how much longer I can put up with it

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    Mute O Swetenham
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    Jul 31st 2017, 12:59 PM

    Usually have my dinner in the alley behind McDonald’s. You’d be surprised with how many perfectly good chicken mcnuggets they leave in the dumpsters back there.

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    Mute Matt Connolly
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:25 PM

    but how many “kitchen-eaters” have a telly in their kitchen or use their phone/tablet/laptop??

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    Mute Suzie Sunshine
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    Jul 31st 2017, 2:59 PM

    @Matt Connolly: ah but that’s not the question being asked .. that makes for a whole different poll .

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    Mute Ollie Watson
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    Aug 1st 2017, 7:41 PM

    @Matt Connolly: I don’t it’s a good time to talk with your family

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    Mute ktsiwot
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    Jul 31st 2017, 12:47 PM

    In the kitchen, in the middle of the day.

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    Mute Jamie
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:02 PM

    In the toilet

    56
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    Mute Harry Corry
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:08 PM

    @Jamie: That’s not surprising Jamie. It’s been quite obvious from your comments that you dwell in a toilet. Most trolls do…

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    Mute George Salter
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:37 PM

    @Harry Corry: I thought trolls preferred under bridges? Or is The Billy Goats Gruff a myth like Santa?!

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    Mute mark kenny
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    Jul 31st 2017, 3:10 PM

    @Harry Corry:

    Just a thought,but why do people reoly to trolls?

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    Mute mark kenny
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    Jul 31st 2017, 3:18 PM

    @mark kenny:

    * reply

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    Mute @UK
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:27 PM

    What’s a dining room?
    In open plan living/kitchen areas most people probably eat at the table in front of the telly

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    Mute Spilt Pint
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    Jul 31st 2017, 10:21 PM

    @UK; When I was growing up in our house we only really used it at Christmas. It was a room with a long table, sideboard for the china & silverware and a service hatch through from the kitchen. No TV or distractions and very old-fashioned.

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    Mute Alan Scott
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    Jul 31st 2017, 12:59 PM

    Mind your own business it has nothing to do with you

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    Mute Sean Kelly
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:09 PM

    @Alan Scott: I think your taking it a bit too literally. Its a poll. Don’t take it so seriously. For example I eat my dinner whilst on the jax in the middle of a cliffhanger. No need to be so aloof my friend…

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    Mute Alan Scott
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:14 PM

    @Sean Kelly: Just a bit of fun Sean on a Monday am. Don’t take me to seriously I am sorry to anyone who might have the same view as Sean. I will try and conduct myself on the next poll.

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    Mute Louis Jacob
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:21 PM

    @Alan Scott: now I really do want to know where you eat your dinner.

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    Mute Gordon Hughes
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:21 PM

    In my mouth most of the time . But there is the occassional “10 second rule” applied to food that managed to hit the deck first

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    Mute Suzie Sunshine
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    Jul 31st 2017, 2:16 PM

    @Gordon Hughes: it’s a 5 second rule …

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    Mute Jho Harris
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    Jul 31st 2017, 2:31 PM

    @Suzie Sunshine: Not when you have a dog which makes it a split second rule.

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    Mute Suzie Sunshine
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    Jul 31st 2017, 2:58 PM

    @Jho Harris: lol very true !

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    Mute Joseph Bloggs
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    Jul 31st 2017, 3:40 PM

    @Jho Harris: well that’s just called ‘sharing’. But don’t let the dog get used to anything fancy. Don’t want them having notions because you dropped a bit of steak once!

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    Mute PaulOD
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:32 PM

    Off a plate

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    Mute Joseph Bloggs
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    Jul 31st 2017, 2:05 PM

    Slow news day.

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    Mute Karl Bauer
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    Jul 31st 2017, 3:33 PM

    I haven’t eaten dinner in about 4 years. Decent breakfast, Decent lunch, at most a cuppa with a bit of toast at dinner time.

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    Mute Don Juan
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:12 PM

    Standing up

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    Mute Rui Firmino
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    Jul 31st 2017, 1:45 PM

    tomorrow. “When do you usually poop?

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    Mute Thomas Maher
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    Jul 31st 2017, 3:03 PM

    @Rui Firmino: Between 6:30 am and 7am. Before I have to leave for work.

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    Mute Joseph Bloggs
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    Jul 31st 2017, 3:38 PM

    @Thomas Maher: not long after a coffee. Always greases the wheels.

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    Mute Rui Firmino
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    Jul 31st 2017, 4:40 PM

    @Thomas Maher: Me too!!

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    Mute Gerben Uunk
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    Jul 31st 2017, 2:48 PM

    Skipping dinner included too? Breakfast is most important meal of the day anyways. A healthy lifestyle vital ! Our mental body is in a constant Go-Go mode, but our
    physicial structure requires some rest too, and no foods are needed a small while before sleep, often its just so-called comfort eating.

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    Mute gerry fallon
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    Jul 31st 2017, 6:43 PM

    On my lap!

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    Mute Danny Halpin
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    Jul 31st 2017, 6:32 PM

    It should always be eaten in kitchen

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    Mute Shawn Rahoon
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    Jul 31st 2017, 4:24 PM

    In my mouth.

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    Mute Ronan Kealy
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    Jul 31st 2017, 6:10 PM

    On a plate.

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    Mute Catherine Sims
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    Jul 31st 2017, 4:25 PM

    Don’t bother with dinner .

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    Mute Brian O Reilly
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    Jul 31st 2017, 4:09 PM

    Off of a plate

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    Mute Quentin Moriarty
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    Aug 1st 2017, 4:19 AM

    In the attic with sandals and a crude candle

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    Mute Johanna Donohue
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    Jul 31st 2017, 9:46 PM

    In the bathroom

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    Mute Ken Pepper
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    Jul 31st 2017, 7:40 PM

    On my penny farthing sashaying through dalkey

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    Mute Spilt Pint
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    Jul 31st 2017, 10:27 PM

    @Ken; I’d be curious to see someone sashay on a bike, it’s normally descriptive of walking/dancing.

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