Hong kong. Good morning. Welcome to early start. Im Phil Mattingly in for dave briggs. Im christine romans. It is 4 00 a. M. In the east. Lets start with the president. President trump admitting during the 2016 president ial race his son don junior met to get information on an opponent. On sunday, the president called the Trump Tower Meeting totally legal and done in politics all the time. Adding i did not know about it. You may know that tweet contradicting the earlier statements. The president acknowledging for the first time the purpose of the meeting was to gather dirt on Hillary Clinton and not to discuss russian adoption. As for it being totally legal . It addresses that the president is now concerned over don junior may have legal exposure in the Robert Mueller probe. That is according to sources
close to the white house. Cnn reported that Michael Cohen may have knew about the meeting despite his denials. Lets get more from boris sanchez. Reporter christine and phil, it has been
President Biden and his son Hunter have made presidential history as the first father-son duo to be separately – but simultaneously – under federal investigation while in office.
let s take a quick look at the timeline. the new york times reports on the meeting. don junior with the statement claiming it is about russian adoption. one day later, the president s son was promised dirt on hillary clinton. two days after that, don junior releases the exchange with rob golstone. discussing dirt on clinton. the president denies knowing about the meeting beforehand. july 12th, reports indicate that president trump was involved in preparing the statement about russian adoptions. jay sekulow denies any involvement. and august 1st, sarah sanders admits the president weighed in on the statement. don junior tells the committee in september he doesn t remember how the white house was involved in crafting it. that was clearly not true. in january of this year, the president s lawyers told special counsel robert mueller in a
christine and phil. thank you, phil. boris pointed out they have tried to twist themselves into a knot trying to explain that trump tower meeting. let s take a quick look at the timeline. the new york times reports on the meeting. don junior with the statement claiming it is about russian adoption. one day later, the president s son was promised dirt on hillary clinton. two days after that, don junior releases the exchange with rob golstone. discussing dirt on clinton. the president denies knowing about the meeting beforehand. july 12th, reports indicate that president trump was involved in preparing the statement about russian adoptions. the president s lawyer, jay sekulow denies any involvement at all. and august 1st, sarah sanders admits the president weighed in