This. Mike barnicle. Senior political analyst Mark Halperin, harold ford jr. , former aide to the george w. Bush white house and state departments elise jordan. Michael schmidt, columnist and associate editor for the Washington Post, David Ignatius. New questions about the motives behind meetings between the president s son, donald jr. , and changing explanations for those meetings. He was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a russian lawyer with reported connections to the kremlin. The meeting took place june 9th, after trump had won in indiana, but still facing a long, grueling fight for delegates. The paper sources three advisers to the white house briefed on the meeting and two other with knowledge of it. They met at trump tower and included trump jr. , then Campaign ChairPaul Manafort, Jared Kushner and the lawyer, natalia veselnitskaya. Exactly. Show those pictures again. This story, just for those of you out there that want to start hash taging fake news, which donald trump jr. Has been doing a great bit lately, fakenews. I wondered why he was amping it up. Now maybe we know. Those of you who want to talk about fake news as we move forward this did not come from an intel agency. These new york time stories all confirmed by people who work for donald trump. We can go forward now. Rob goldstone told the Washington Post he arranged the meeting at the request of a russian client and also attended. More on goldstone in a moment. On saturday, donald trump jr. Told msnbc news, quote, we primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children. He cares about children . That was active and popular with American Families years ago and since ended by the russian government but it was not a Campaign Issue at the time and there was no follow up. I was asked to attend the meeting by an aacquaintance but was not told the name of the person i would be meeting with beforehand. Okay. So, Mark Halperin, notice that the first explanation on saturday, its about adoption. Its about the kids. Their statement on saturday says absolutely nothing about, as the New York Times says, dirt offered on Hillary Clinton. A lot of interesting things here. One of the things thats not explained is why he said what he said saturday and was forced to change his story. Forced . Forced to change his story by seemingly what the New York Times was able to learn. Whoever is helping the New York Times with these stories seems to be doing it in a way like maximum damage on at least donald trump jr. Even if you accept his sunday version. Accept his sunday version, ask no questions, have no suspicions, he is in a world of hurt. No mention of Hillary Clinton in the saturday statement. But when the times reported sunday that trump was told russia had damaging information on clinton, he replied with a much longer statement. I was asked to have a meeting by an acquaintance i knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant with an individual who i was told might have information helpful to the campaign i was not told her name prior to the meeting. I asked jared and paul to attend but told them nothing of the substance. Stop right there. Mark, youve dealt with these people. Weve dealt with these people. How likely is it that don jr. Would have called Paul Manafort and jared in, with all the meetings and all the things we knew about on how that campaign ran, how likely is it that don jr. Would have said, hey, ive got this meeting, guys, come to my office. Im not going to tell you what it is. Middle of the campaign. Its not totally impossible. Even if you accept their version of the events, the fact that they had this meeting and failed to disclose it is phenomenal. Its possible that such a thing could occur the way they describe it, but unlikely. Extraordinarily unlikely. This is not how they did business. One of the keys to the story in the times is the line that three advisers to the white house were briefed on the meeting, indicated to the times that the meeting did occur. That would seem to indicate that they feel that donald trump jr. Has placed his father in some position of peril. At least his father is going to protect him. Oh, wait. No. No. Actually, they put out a statement saying i know nothing. You know what . I was not with fredo in vegas. He was setting up those deals on the side. All right. Ill continue. Okay. We had a meeting june 2016 after pleasantries were exchanged the woman stated she had information that individuals connected with russia were funding the Democratic National committee and supporting ms. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear she had no meaningful information. She then changed subjects and began discussing the adoption of russian children and mentioned the magnitsky act. It became clear to me this was the true agenda all along and the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting. I interrupted and advised her that my father was not an elected official but rather a private citizen and that her comments and concerns were better addressed if and when he held public office. The meeting lasted approximately 20 to 30 minutes. About the length of the bill Clinton Loretta lynch meeting. Goodness. David ignatius, this is fascinating. His defense says we thought she was coming in to give us information. Thought she was going to collude with us and give us Bad Information on Hillary Clinton. But when we found out that she did not have damaging information on Hillary Clinton and could not collude with us and it was about adoptions, we called an abrupt end to the meeting. This is a defense . Im with Mark Halperin. What did don jr. Find out between saturday when he lied and sunday when he was forced to tell the truth . And why was he forced to tell the truth . He clearly discovered that others were putting out a true account of what happened and that he had to square his account with it or look like he was lying. I just would note on this question of adoptions, the reason that then emerged after the initial dishing dirt on Hillary Clinton, its not about adoptions. Its about opposing whats called the magnitsky act, an attempt to hold the regime of Vladimir Putin accountable for the death of an anticorruption crusader named magnitsky. This has been a key thorn in putins side. This woman was coming even on the best analysis to argue the case of putin against this american legislation, attempting to hold him to account. This revelation there have been so many but i think this is really significant. Its so early. June 2016, its so direct. A known kremlin propagandist. Paul manafort, whom we are just beginning to learn there will be a series of revelations, im just sure, about manafort. Final point, interesting, whats the lead at the white house . That don trump jr. Said my father knew nothing about this. Don jr. Is falling on his sword saying my father wasnt aware. And, again, i think well have more such statements from others. And then theres this. If you look at it this way. Government officials first learned of the meeting when Jared Kushner revised a security clearance form that failed to disclose the controversial meeting. The third kremlin connected russian that the president s soninlaw has failed to disclose on government forms, meeting with russia. Kushner did not disclose a private meeting with the Russian Ambassador and also failed to disclose a private meeting with the head of russian Staterun Bank closely tied to Vladimir Putin. Lawmakers are questioning whether the president s soninlaw, a Top White House adviser, should be granted security clearances after this third revelation. Kushner is one of several Trump Associates who offered on the record or under oath omissions or falsehoods about meeting with russians. Also on the list, Vice President pence, mike flynn, Jeff Sessions, the president s soninlaw and now don jr. Forgot to disclose it after meeting with the Russian Ambassador. He met with the head of a russianrun bank with close ties to Vladimir Putin. He forgot to disclose it. He met with a russian lawyer for the purposes of attending a meeting in which dirt was going to be dished on Hillary Clinton, while they were still trying to lock down the republican nomination. He forgot to disclose it. Lawmakers on capitol hill now understandably are asking whether he should ever get a security clearance. Where does this go and of what interest might this be to bob mueller . Well, this story, which is done by three of my colleagues, it pushes the issue forward. Because if Jared Kushner was just a regular government employee, theres no way he would be able to keep his security clearance if there had been this many misstatements about his meetings. So its clear he will continue to have one because the president would like him to have one. But if he was a regular government person, that wouldnt happen. The other thing here is that don jr. Told us in march that he had not met with any russians in his capacity with the campaign, that there hadnt been any of that. Its not just a revised statement from saturday to sunday. But its the fact that in march he said there had been nothing like this at all. And, michael, this continues to happen. The attorney general of the United States, forgetting meetings with russians. Don jr. Forgetting meeting with russians. By the way, don jr. , a guy who several years ago, said that most of the trump money came from russians. And this was a guy that set up the meeting, was connected with the Miss Universe pageant, a billionaire, had a client who was a billionaire in russia. This was a pretty complex relationship, intertwined relationship. Theres no way don jr. Did not remember this meeting took place. There is no way that kushner did not remember this meeting took place. There is no way that Paul Manafort did not remember this meeting took place. They lied in disclosure forms and lied to the media. This comes back to march. So, by march, it was clear to the Trump Campaign that this russia issue was not going to be going anywhere and it was going to be around for a while. So, what doesnt make sense here is why they didnt just take all the meetings that they knew about and said, look, got nothing to hide here. Here are all the meetings. Here say list, and put it out. It would have taken the issue, a lot of the oxygen out of it. What we have here is the fact that even in march, when they knew that the russia issue wasnt going to go away, they told one story and they continued to revise it. As democrats would say, they would say, look, if theres nothing to hide here, they certainly created the perception that there is. So, elise, on top of it, there have been every step of the way questions about russia. And questions about why trump doesnt seem to want to be sharp about the truth about russia. How could they forget these meetings, given the fact that russia has been a key question since before trump even won the presidency . I think we need to look at the timeline of how all of this has unfolded and the timeline in the context of this election. So this contact happened in june, early, before the convention. Then you look at how at the convention, they ramped up, changed the language. This is a concerted effort about arming ukraine. Mike flynn was setting up meetings with kislyak. All of this was starting. Donald trump at the same time was saying very publicly, very loudly at a press conference, i want the Hillary Clinton missing emails. So i thought that President Trump was pretty detached from all of this, that he was just letting lieutenants run rogue. But i wonder if President Trump himself had made this a priority, that he wanted those emails and his minions were essentially trying to fulfill that request for him. Russia, there are 30,000, when did he say that . July i believe. Wikileaks and russia, saying if you do it youll be rewarded by the american press. Six month noots Trump Presidency, the tentacles of russia story is strangling his presidency. In terms of getting anything done legislatively in congress. Its precluding anything from happening. No . Every time hes on a roll, it gets stopped and Lindsey Graham, aptly and correctly saying that to form a Cyber Security plan with russia seems odd, to go forward republicans have finally found their voice. For donald trump jr. , who i happen to know and is a friend, the thing i dont understand is what was his intent going into the meeting . If you read his statement youve said it, joe. Youve glossed over it quickly. If his intent was to extract or find information damaging to her campaign and then said she quickly changed subjects, it became clear to me all along this was her true agenda. If tha it was not going to attract him to the meeting, what was attracting him was the collus oichl collusion. He wanted damaging information. Would he have asked Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner to talk about, as important as americans adopting russians may be, would the two top advisers join him in the meeting . At some point he has to answer that question. To add to elises point, anybody with information would be rewarded by the american press. Remember, we all said on the show jumping around a bit but jared went on to find, reportedly, secret ways to meet with members of the russian government. You have the president and the white house smiling with the Russian Ambassador and russian president removing the american press. It seems odd. And saying in that meeting, we find comey. He was a nut case. All the pressure is off of us now. Just had fired comey. Thats what he said to the russians. Even if you want to meet with him, why would you choose that day . Choose the day after you fire comey to have them in and say he was a bad guy. We got rid of him. So many within the Trump Administration and trump family apparently think the russians are our friends. And strong leaders. What is the most difficult thing to explain is why do they keep meeting with highranking russians, or russians with close ties to Vladimir Putin or russians doing Vladimir Putins bidding and they continue to lie before the United States congress, they continue to lie under oath. They continue to lie on disclosure forms about those meetings. And they continue to try to undermine the media who is reporting on this. They cant even in this case their dupes that go fakenews, they cant even do it. This story oh, wait. The call came from inside the house. Theres somebody inside the white house leaking this. This is not from outside the house. It was all confirmed by people who work for donald trump. Mark halperin . David ignatius, i want to ask you about something thats important that the times story doesnt get into. Don jr. Says that the president of the United States didnt know about this meeting. You can bet that Vladimir Putin knew about it, right . The lawyer has very close kremlin ties and its unlikely to me she would have reported on her efforts to lobby the top officials of the Trump Campaign about russian positions without reporting that back. I think one reason this surfaces is that she probably is a person who is subject to u. S. Surveillance. Exactly. So her conversations, her travels, her later discussions about who she met with and what they said are probably notable facts. So theres a flow of information now that is dangerous to the Trump Administration of u. S. Intelligence intercepting things the russians are saying. Presumably, the russians are delighting in whats going on. Right . Were only in the imagining stage now but this is june 2016. Donald trump has just shown that hes going to win the nomination. A russian plan thats been, you know, pretty low key, collecting information, penetrating servers, according to the dossier compiled long ago. Parts of it may be false. Parts may not. At that time in midsummer, the russians begin changing the nature of their operations in the u. S. , begin to think about helping one candidate. In addition. They always wanted to hurt Hillary Clinton. These are the things that mueller, its going to take him months and months to get to the bottom of. Donald trump said after his hamburg summit its time to move on. Guess what, folks, the country is not going to be able to move on until we have a clear factual accounting of