--- title: Russia Meeting: GOP Rep. Will Hurt Wouldn't Have Attended description: Republican Rep. Will Hurd said he would not have taken a meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, as Donald Trump Jr. did during the campaign canonical: https://time.com/4862149/russia-meeting-donald-trump-jr-will-hurd/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-18T00:33:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:35:52.051Z article:section: Politics og:title: GOP Congressman: I Wouldn't Have Attended the Russia Meeting og:description: "I definitely would not have sat down with anybody claiming to part of the Kremlin" og:url: https://time.com/4862149/russia-meeting-donald-trump-jr-will-hurd/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54db66d5a09ad09a/6988d6178fd2eef180358055/will-hurd-donald-trump-jr-russia-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Will Hurd og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: GOP Congressman: I Wouldn't Have Attended the Russia Meeting twitter:description: "I definitely would not have sat down with anybody claiming to part of the Kremlin" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54db66d5a09ad09a/6988d6178fd2eef180358055/will-hurd-donald-trump-jr-russia-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # GOP Congressman: I Wouldn't Have Attended the Russia Meeting  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 18, 2017 12:33 AM UTC  Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, is interviewed by CQ Roll Call in his Cannon Building office on Dec. 8, 2015. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, is interviewed by CQ Roll Call in his Cannon Building office on Dec. 8, 2015.Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call,Inc./ Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 18, 2017 12:33 AM UTC Republican Rep. Will Hurd of Texas said Monday that he [would not have taken a meeting](http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2017/07/17/lead-hurd-russia-investigation-interview-live.cnn) with a Kremlin-connected lawyer, countering [President Donald Trump’s](http://time.com/4854444/donald-trump-twitter-defense-trump-jr-russia/) claim that “most politicians” would have made the same decision as his son to [attend a meeting with a Russian attorney](http://time.com/4856233/donald-trump-jr-emails/?iid=sr-link1) promising [information on Hillary Clinton.](http://time.com/4855835/donald-trump-jr-foreign-oppo/) “I spent nine and half years as an undercover officer in the CIA — a lot of that chasing Russian intelligence officers. I definitely would not have sat down with anybody claiming to part of the Kremlin or Russian intelligence,” Hurd [told CNN’s Jake Tapper](http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2017/07/17/lead-hurd-russia-investigation-interview-live.cnn). “I just hope everyone connected with the campaign has reviewed their Outlook files and made sure all the details are out there now because this is becoming a nuisance and a distraction from some of the conversations we should be having.” President Trump tweeted on Monday that his son’s meeting during the presidential campaign was just “politics.” “Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That’s politics!” he [said](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump). Hurd, who sits on the House permanent select committee on intelligence, said he thinks [Donald Trump Jr.](http://time.com/4851007/donald-trump-jr-account-russian-lawyer/?iid=sr-link2) knew beforehand that the meeting would be with a Russian government official, but he said he would “withhold judgment” until he gets more information. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4862149/russia-meeting-donald-trump-jr-will-hurd/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4862149/russia-meeting-donald-trump-jr-will-hurd/"},"headline":"GOP Congressman: I Wouldn't Have Attended the Russia Meeting","datePublished":"2017-07-18T00:33:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:35:52.051Z","description":"\"I definitely would not have sat down with anybody claiming to part of the Kremlin\"","url":"https://time.com/4862149/russia-meeting-donald-trump-jr-will-hurd/","keywords":["Congress","russia","White House","Donald Trump","Donald Trump Jr.","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54db66d5a09ad09a/6988d6178fd2eef180358055/will-hurd-donald-trump-jr-russia-meeting.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/blt54db66d5a09ad09a/6988d6178fd2eef180358055/will-hurd-donald-trump-jr-russia-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Will Hurd","caption":"Will Hurd","creditText":"Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call,Inc./ 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/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4862149/russia-meeting-donald-trump-jr-will-hurd/","name":"GOP Congressman: I Wouldn't Have Attended the Russia Meeting"}}]}] ```