--- title: President Trump: Son's Meeting with Russia 'Totally Legal' description: U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that he didn’t know about his son’s meeting with Russians at Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign. canonical: https://time.com/5358183/president-trump-don-jr-russia/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-05T14:36:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T07:41:28.594Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Calls Son's Meeting with Russia 'Totally Legal' og:description: The President tweeted that this kind of meeting happens 'all the time' og:url: https://time.com/5358183/president-trump-don-jr-russia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d9e5745879bf70c/6989370edb2987d5ef26059b/trump-don-jr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2268 og:image:height: 1276 og:image:alt: President Trump and Don Jr. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Calls Son's Meeting with Russia 'Totally Legal' twitter:description: The President tweeted that this kind of meeting happens 'all the time' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d9e5745879bf70c/6989370edb2987d5ef26059b/trump-don-jr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Calls Donald Trump Jr.'s Meeting with Russia 'Totally Legal' > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=b32ff023-1cbd-4015-983f-90c831e6319a&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Lawyer Who Met With Donald Trump Jr. Has Ties to Russian Officials, Emails Show [Watch (HLS stream): Lawyer Who Met With Donald Trump Jr. Has Ties to Russian Officials, Emails Show](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GDeA8NxD.m3u8) (1:05)  _Published 2018-07-27. The Moscow lawyer said to have promised Donald Trump’s presidential campaign dirt on his Democratic opponent worked more closely with senior Russian government officials than she previously let on_ by [Nour Al Ali and Ros Krasny / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Nour Al Ali and Ros Krasny / Bloomberg Contributor Aug 5, 2018 2:36 PM UTC The Moscow lawyer said to have promised Donald Trump’s presidential campaign dirt on his Democratic opponent worked more closely with senior Russian government officials than she previously let on by [Nour Al Ali and Ros Krasny / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Nour Al Ali and Ros Krasny / Bloomberg Contributor Aug 5, 2018 2:36 PM UTC (Bloomberg) — U.S. President Donald Trump repeated that didn’t know about his son’s meeting with Russians at Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign, while asserting that such meetings are a routine part of politics — “totally legal and done all the time.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1026084333315153924) Trump has said similar things about the June 2016 meeting. On July 27, Trump said on Twitter that “I did NOT know of the meeting with my son, Don jr,” in response to reports that his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was ready to tell authorities that Trump had known. “Sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam,” Trump said of Cohen. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1022812910702215169) CNN reported that Cohen was prepared to tell federal investigators that the president knew ahead of time about the meeting, at which a Russian lawyer with links to the Kremlin was expected to deliver damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Such testimony by Cohen, a longtime fixer for Trump, would contradict the testimony and public denials of the president, his son, and other campaign officials who’ve repeatedly said the president wasn’t aware of the meeting until more than a year later. The meeting was attended by the president’s son as well as Paul Manafort, then chairman of Trump’s presidential campaign; Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and several Russians, including the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and their representatives. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5358183/president-trump-don-jr-russia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5358183/president-trump-don-jr-russia/"},"headline":"President Trump Calls Donald Trump Jr.'s Meeting with Russia 'Totally Legal'","datePublished":"2018-08-05T14:36:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-13T07:41:28.594Z","description":"The President tweeted that this kind of meeting happens 'all the time'","url":"https://time.com/5358183/president-trump-don-jr-russia/","keywords":["White House","Bloomberg","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d9e5745879bf70c/6989370edb2987d5ef26059b/trump-don-jr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nour Al Ali and Ros Krasny / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d9e5745879bf70c/6989370edb2987d5ef26059b/trump-don-jr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump and Don Jr.","caption":"President Trump and Don Jr. shake hands","creditText":"Pool—Getty Images","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/5358183/president-trump-don-jr-russia/","name":"President Trump Calls Donald Trump Jr.'s Meeting with Russia 'Totally Legal'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Lawyer Who Met With Donald Trump Jr. Has Ties to Russian Officials, Emails Show","description":"The Moscow lawyer said to have promised Donald Trump’s presidential campaign dirt on his Democratic opponent worked more closely with senior Russian government officials than she previously let on","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GDeA8NxD/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-27T01:16:37.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GDeA8NxD.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5358183/president-trump-don-jr-russia/","duration":"PT1M5S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5358183/president-trump-don-jr-russia/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```