Donald Trump Jr. attended a meeting before the election with a woman he was told was a “Russian government attorney” who had dirt on Hillary Clinton that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump,” a revelation that will likely dominate the news cycle this week.
The story was reported in increments by The New York Times. Every day as new details were released, the story got crazier. New characters, including a publicist for a Russian pop star with a robust and entertaining social media presence, have appeared on the front pages of the Times.
The paper first reported the existence of the meeting, then the fact that it was a meeting about damaging information on Clinton, and finally that it had been pitched to Trump Jr. as part of a Kremlin effort to discredit Clinton and help Trump. On the other side, Trump Jr.’s statements about what happened have also evolved.
Democratic officials and some members of the media are calling the story the first smoking gun evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, though the lawyer’s connection to the Kremlin is still unclear — and there is no evidence yet that the Trump campaign actually received any helpful intel on Clinton from the meeting.
Anticipating the Times story published today, Trump Jr. released his entire email thread with the publicist who organized the meeting on Twitter. In that email the publicist says “this is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Trump Jr. replied: “I love it.”
This timeline breaks down how it all happened.
