Trump lawyers say he 'dictated' statement on Trump Tower meeting, contradicting past denials
Some of the past lies:
Sekulow (Trump's lawyer), NBC interview, 7/16/17: "The President was not — did not — draft the response. The response came from Donald Trump Jr. and — I'm sure — in consultation with his lawyer. ... Let me say this — but I do want to be clear — that the President was not involved in the drafting of the statement. ... It came from Donald Trump Jr."
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, daily press briefing, 8/1/17: "He certainly didn't dictate, but he -- like I said, he weighed in, offered suggestion like any father would do."
So it went from: "He wasn't involved" to "He was involved, but didn't dictate" to "He dictated." It's basically a Monty Python skit with John Cleese as the Washington Post reporter and Michael Palin as Trump or a surrogate. "They dressed me like a witch" ... "No we didn't" ... "Well, we did do the nose" ... "And the hat"
To be fair, Trump's dictated statement was accurate, albeit completely misleading. He said what the meeting was actually about, namely adoptions and the Magnitsky act. His son, however, never expected it to be about that, and the initiators of the meeting did not say it would be about that. It was supposed to be about providing dirt on Hillary Clinton. The proposal began: "The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." Trump Jr responded, "If it's what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer."
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