--- 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: 2026-02-23T21:03:43.287Z 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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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. 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  In this file photo, Donald Trump, Jr. (L) greets his father Donald Trump during the town hall debate at Washington University on October 9, 2016 in St Louis, Missouri. In this file photo, Donald Trump, Jr. (L) greets his father Donald Trump during the town hall debate at Washington University on October 9, 2016 in St Louis, Missouri. Pool—Getty Images 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. ```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":"2026-02-23T21:03:43.287Z","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'"}}]}] ```