Donald Trump Jr. Says He’s Not Afraid Of Going To Jail Over Russia Allegations
Donald Trump Jr. may be deeply embroiled in the Russia investigation, but the eldest son of President Donald Trump says he’s not worried about ending up in jail.
In an interview on Tuesday, Trump Jr. said he’s not worried about any legal exposure from a meeting he set up at Trump Tower in 2016 with a Kremlin-connected lawyer offering dirt Russia had stolen on Hillary Clinton. As CNN noted, Trump Jr. believes he did nothing wrong in the matter.
“I’m not because I know what I did, and I’m not worried about any of that,” he said in an appearance on Good Morning America. “That doesn’t mean they won’t try to create something, I mean, we’ve seen that happen with everything. But, again, I’m not.”
The meeting is reportedly a major part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, with the meeting representing the most significant evidence of potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. It was at the meeting that Russian officials reportedly offered dirt on Clinton, and immediately afterward Donald Trump tweeted that some damaging revelations about Clinton would soon be made public.
Reports noted that Donald Trump has privately expressed worry that his son may have broken the law, even if inadvertently. The Washington Post reported in August that President Trump told confidants he was worried about his son’s exposure, which the Independent noted was a rare admission of potential guilt from Trump.
“At rare moments of introspection for the famously self-centered president, Mr. Trump has also expressed to confidants lingering unease about how some in his orbit – including his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr – are ensnared in the Russia probe, in his assessment simply because of their connection to him,” the report noted.
Around the same time, Trump’s team began aggressively pushing back against the Mueller probe. Led by Trump’s lawyer-cum-spokesman, Rudy Giuliani, the president began making more public statements calling the Russia probe a politically motivated “witch hunt.” At the same time, negotiations between Trump’s team and Mueller for the president to sit for an interview became increasingly strained, with Giuliani asking for a number of restrictions on what questions could be asked.
Donald Trump Jr. on special counsel Robert Mueller's probe: "I know what I did, and I'm not worried about any of that" https://t.co/yF1GY5CwS7 pic.twitter.com/kS7PP5tSBI
— CNN (@CNN) September 11, 2018
In the weeks since then, the Russia investigation has continued moving closer into Trump’s inner circle, with federal convictions for both campaign manager Paul Manafort and Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Donald Trump Jr. has not faced any charges for his role in the Trump Tower meeting.
