--- description: The White House confirmed Trump was involved in drafting a statement for his son after reports emerged of his meeting with a Russian lawyer title: Trump Weighed in on Statement for His Son's Meeting With Russian Lawyer image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc1a096334af1443b/6988d800bc6cfcf50e3e2797/trump-jr-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [White House](/tag/white-house/) ## White House Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # White House: President Trump Weighed In on Donald Trump Jr. Statement 'As Any Father Would'  by [Alana Abramson](/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 1, 2017 7:37 PM CUT  Donald Trump Jr. (R) watches his father Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump leave the stage on the night of the Iowa Caucus in Des Moines, Iowa on Feb. 1, 2016. Donald Trump Jr. (R) watches his father Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump leave the stage on the night of the Iowa Caucus in Des Moines, Iowa on Feb. 1, 2016.Jim Bourg—Reuters  by [Alana Abramson](/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 1, 2017 7:37 PM CUT The White House confirmed Tuesday that President Trump had been involved in drafting a statement for his son [Donald Trump Jr.](http://time.com/4868419/poll-donald-trump-jr-russia-meeting/ "undefined") after reports emerged last month that he had met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign. “The statement that Don Jr. issued is true. The President weighed in as any father would based on the limited information that he had,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday at the daily press briefing. “This is all discussion frankly with no consequence. There was no follow up; it was disclosed to the proper parties, which is how the New York _Times_ found out about it to begin with.” “He certainly didn’t dictate,” Sanders continued, “but you know, he, like I said, he weighed in, offered suggestion, like any father would do. ” The _Washington Post_ [reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-dictated-sons-misleading-statement-on-meeting-with-russian-lawyer/2017/07/31/04c94f96-73ae-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.0b1aae0b3819 "undefined") Monday night that President Trump had “personally dictated” the initial statement from Donald Trump Jr. about his June 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya after the New York _Times_ broke the news about it. Trump’s statement said the two primarily discussed Russian adoption policy. Trump’s campaign manager at the time, Paul Manafort, attended the meeting, as did the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is now a Senior White House adviser. The New York _Times_ subsequently reported that Donald Trump Jr. had met with Veselnitskaya because he was promised compromising information about Hillary Clinton. After that report, the President’s son released his emails leading up to the meeting, which showed [he was promised](http://time.com/4853005/donald-trump-jr-emails-hillary-clinton-russia/ "undefined") “very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” One of Trump’s lawyers, Jay Sekulow, told the _Post,_ “apart from being of no consequence, the characterizations are misinformed, inaccurate, and not pertinent.” Sanders said the focus on this meeting was part of a political ploy by the Democrats. “The Democrats want to continue to use this as a PR stunt and are doing everything they can to keep this alive and in the paper every single day,” she said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4882937/white-house-donald-trump-jr-statement-natalia-veselnitskaya/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4882937/white-house-donald-trump-jr-statement-natalia-veselnitskaya/"},"headline":"White House: President Trump Weighed In on Donald Trump Jr. Statement 'As Any Father Would'","datePublished":"2017-08-01T19:37:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:49:27.560Z","description":"\"The President weighed in as any father would based on the limited information that he had\"","url":"https://time.com/4882937/white-house-donald-trump-jr-statement-natalia-veselnitskaya/","keywords":["White House","onetime","Russia Investigation"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc1a096334af1443b/6988d800bc6cfcf50e3e2797/trump-jr-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc1a096334af1443b/6988d800bc6cfcf50e3e2797/trump-jr-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Jr. watches his father Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump leave the stage on the night of 2016 Iowa Caucus in Des Moines","caption":"Donald Trump Jr. watches his father Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump leave the stage on the night of 2016 Iowa Caucus in Des Moines","creditText":"Jim Bourg—Reuters","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/4882937/white-house-donald-trump-jr-statement-natalia-veselnitskaya/","name":"White House: President Trump Weighed In on Donald Trump Jr. Statement 'As Any Father Would'"}}]}] ```