--- title: Donald Trump Jr: What President Trump Has Said to Defend Him description: President Trump stepped up his defense of his son amid revelations that he met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign canonical: https://time.com/4854444/donald-trump-twitter-defense-trump-jr-russia/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-12T13:05:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:31:09.672Z article:section: Politics og:title: Everything President Trump Has Said to Defend Donald Trump Jr. Amid Email Scandal og:description: "He was open, transparent and innocent" og:url: https://time.com/4854444/donald-trump-twitter-defense-trump-jr-russia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac36b59509cd5423/6988d54997cdff3cbf6b18bd/donaldtrump-trumpjr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2268 og:image:height: 1276 og:image:alt: Candidates Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Hold Second Presidential Debate At Washington University og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Everything President Trump Has Said to Defend Donald Trump Jr. Amid Email Scandal twitter:description: "He was open, transparent and innocent" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac36b59509cd5423/6988d54997cdff3cbf6b18bd/donaldtrump-trumpjr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # ‘Open, Transparent and Innocent.’ Everything President Trump Has Said to Defend His Son Amid Email Scandal > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. 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.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 12, 2017 1:05 PM UTC  Donald Trump, Jr. (L) greets his father, then- Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, during the town hall debate at Washington University on Oct. 9, 2016 in St Louis, Missouri. Donald Trump, Jr. (L) greets his father, then- Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, during the town hall debate at Washington University on Oct. 9, 2016 in St Louis, Missouri. Saul Loeb—Pool/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 12, 2017 1:05 PM UTC President [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4854378/russia-trump-jr-scandal/) on Wednesday stepped up his defense of his son amid revelations that [Donald Trump Jr.](http://time.com/4854188/donald-trump-jr-sean-hannity-natalia-veselnitskaya-meeting/) went to [a meeting](http://time.com/4853850/donald-trump-jr-natalia-veselnitskaya-email-denial/) during the 2016 campaign on the pretense of gathering damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government. “My son Donald did a good job last night,” Trump [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/885081181980590084) on Wednesday morning, referring to Trump Jr.’s [Fox News interview](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/07/12/donald-trump-jr-tells-sean-hannity-in-retrospect-probably-would-have-done-things-little-differently.html) with Sean Hannity on Tuesday. “He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!” On Tuesday, Trump Jr. [published an email chain](http://time.com/4853005/donald-trump-jr-emails-hillary-clinton-russia/) that showed he was promised “very high level and sensitive information” about Clinton as part of the Russian “government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Trump Jr. has repeatedly said nothing substantive came from the meeting, though the emails show Trump Jr. expressed interest in receiving the information. “In retrospect I probably would have done things a little differently,” Trump Jr., told Hannity, while downplaying the meeting and saying he never told his father about it. “It was just a nothing. There was nothing to tell,” Trump Jr. said. ” I wouldn’t have even remembered it until you started scouring through this stuff.” The President previously defended Trump Jr. on Tuesday. “He is a great person who loves our country!” [he wrote on Twitter](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/884931352201756672). White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders also read a brief statement from the President at a press briefing Tuesday, in which he called Trump Jr., a “a high-quality person.” “My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency,” the statement said. Sanders referred all further questions about Trump Jr. to his lawyers. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4854444/donald-trump-twitter-defense-trump-jr-russia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4854444/donald-trump-twitter-defense-trump-jr-russia/"},"headline":"‘Open, Transparent and Innocent.’ Everything President Trump Has Said to Defend His Son Amid Email Scandal","datePublished":"2017-07-12T13:05:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:31:09.672Z","description":"\"He was open, transparent and innocent\"","url":"https://time.com/4854444/donald-trump-twitter-defense-trump-jr-russia/","keywords":["Donald Trump","russia","White House","Donald Trump Jr.","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac36b59509cd5423/6988d54997cdff3cbf6b18bd/donaldtrump-trumpjr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac36b59509cd5423/6988d54997cdff3cbf6b18bd/donaldtrump-trumpjr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Candidates Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Hold Second Presidential Debate At Washington University","caption":"Candidates Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Hold Second Presidential Debate At Washington University","creditText":"Saul Loeb—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/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4854444/donald-trump-twitter-defense-trump-jr-russia/","name":"‘Open, Transparent and Innocent.’ Everything President Trump Has Said to Defend His Son Amid Email Scandal"}}]}] ```