Trump dictated misleading statement on son's meeting with Russian lawyer: report

U.S. President Donald Trumpdictated a statement, later shown to be misleading, in which hisson Donald Trump Jr. said a meeting he had with a Russian lawyerin June 2016 was not related to his father's presidentialcampaign, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

Trump Jr. released emails earlier in July that showed heeagerly agreed last year to meet a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who might have damaging informationabout Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as partof Moscow's official support for his father. TheNew York Times was first to report the meeting.

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The Washington Post said Trump advisers discussed the newdisclosure and agreed that Trump Jr. should issue a truthfulaccount of the episode so that it "couldn't be repudiated laterif the full details emerged."

The president, who was flying home from Germany on July 8,changed the plan and "personally dictated a statement in whichTrump Jr. said he and the Russian lawyer had 'primarilydiscussed a program about the adoption of Russian children,'" the Post said, citing unnamed people with knowledge of thedeliberations.

The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Post story, nor did Trump's outsidecounsel Marc Kasowitz and Donald Trump Jr.'s attorney, AlanFuterfas.

U.S. investigators are probing whether there was collusionbetween the Kremlin and Trump'spresidential campaign.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow soughtto hurt Clinton and help Trump in the 2016 election. Russiadenies any interference, and Trump has denied collusion withRussia.

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The president applauded his son's "transparency" after hereleased the email exchanges on July 11.

"It remains unclear exactly how much the president knew at the time of the flight about Trump Jr.'s meeting," the Washington Post said.

David Sklansky, a professor of criminal law at Stanford Law School, said that if Trump, as reported by the Post, helped craft a misleading public statement about the meeting, he may have bolstered a potential obstruction of justice case against himself.

To build a criminal obstruction of justice case, federal law requires prosecutors to show that a person acted with "corrupt" intent. A misleading public statement could be used as evidence of corrupt intent, Sklansky said.

"Lying usually isn't a crime," he said. But "it could be relevant in determining whether something else the president did, like firing [former FBI Director James]Comey, was done corruptly."