--- title: Donald Trump Jr: Read the Emails He Sent to Russian Lawyer description: President Donald Trump's son has made public series of emails that led to his controversial meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya last June. canonical: https://time.com/4853057/donald-trump-jr-twitter-emails/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-11T15:57:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:19.561Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Donald Trump Jr.‘s Emails to a Russian Lawyer og:description: To set up a meeting for information on then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton og:url: https://time.com/4853057/donald-trump-jr-twitter-emails/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfbd290aa89414e87/69889cab196cf4325203c79d/christopher-morris-rnc-republican-national-convention-day-2-45.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL RNC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Donald Trump Jr.‘s Emails to a Russian Lawyer twitter:description: To set up a meeting for information on then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfbd290aa89414e87/69889cab196cf4325203c79d/christopher-morris-rnc-republican-national-convention-day-2-45.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Donald Trump Jr.‘s Emails Setting Up His Clinton Meeting With Russian Lawyer ## Video: Russian Lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya Speaks on NBC's Today Show [Watch (HLS stream): Russian Lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya Speaks on NBC's Today Show](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/r0bVQokL.m3u8) (1:15)  _Published 2017-07-11. The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, told NBC she received a phone call from a man she didn't know and was told to meet with the Trump campaign_ by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Jul 11, 2017 3:57 PM UTC  Donald Trump Jr. speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19, 2016. Donald Trump Jr. speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19, 2016.Christopher Morris—VII for TIME by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Jul 11, 2017 3:57 PM UTC On Twitter Tuesday, [President Donald Trump’s son](http://time.com/4853005/donald-trump-jr-emails-hillary-clinton-russia/) posted a series of emails that led to his controversial meeting with [Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya](http://time.com/4852612/trump-jr-hillary-clinton-russian-lawyer-info/) “in order to be totally transparent.” In his statement, which he posted alongside screenshots of a series of email exchanges, Trump Jr. said he thought the meeting he took amid the 2016 election last June was “political opposition research” for then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. He originally planned to have a phone conversation, but it didn’t work out and a meeting in New York was later arranged. “As Rob Goldstone said just today in the press,” Trump wrote, “the entire meeting was ‘the most inane nonsense I have ever heard’.” The email exchanges between Trump, Jared Kushner, then-campaign chairman [Paul Manafort](http://time.com/4836165/paul-manafort-trump-foreign-agent/) and Goldstone, a music promoter who represents Emin Agalarov — the man who arranged Trump’s meeting with Veselnitskaya — show the president’s son open to meeting for potentially negative information on Clinton, “especially later in the summer.” Read the emails in full below:      ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4853057/donald-trump-jr-twitter-emails/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4853057/donald-trump-jr-twitter-emails/"},"headline":"Read Donald Trump Jr.‘s Emails Setting Up His Clinton Meeting With Russian Lawyer","datePublished":"2017-07-11T15:57:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:43:19.561Z","description":"To set up a meeting for information on then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton","url":"https://time.com/4853057/donald-trump-jr-twitter-emails/","keywords":["White House","russia","Donald Trump Jr.","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfbd290aa89414e87/69889cab196cf4325203c79d/christopher-morris-rnc-republican-national-convention-day-2-45.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfbd290aa89414e87/69889cab196cf4325203c79d/christopher-morris-rnc-republican-national-convention-day-2-45.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL RNC","caption":"Donald Trump Jr. speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19, 2016.","creditText":"Christopher Morris—VII for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4853057/donald-trump-jr-twitter-emails/","name":"Read Donald Trump Jr.‘s Emails Setting Up His Clinton Meeting With Russian Lawyer"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Russian Lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya Speaks on NBC's Today Show","description":"The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, told NBC she received a phone call from a man she didn't know and was told to meet with the Trump campaign","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/r0bVQokL/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-07-11T17:13:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/r0bVQokL.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4853057/donald-trump-jr-twitter-emails/","duration":"PT1M15S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4853057/donald-trump-jr-twitter-emails/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```