DAY 171: Donald Trump Jr. seems to admit collusion with Russia in meeting with lawyer

The New York Times published a follow-up article to its July 8 piece on the meeting between a Russian lawyer with links to the Kremlin and members of the Trump campaign, but with a huge revelation: At least Donald Trump Jr. was promised damaging information by the Russian lawyer, which reinforces the suspicion that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

From the NYT article, which points out that it is inclear if the lawyer actually delivered the damaging information, but she was expected to do so by the Trump campaign:

President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, according to three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.

...

In a statement on Sunday, Donald Trump Jr. said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance. “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he said, “the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

The problem is Donald Trump Jr.'s statement contradicts its statement from a day before on the meeting. Here are the two statements side by side as tweeted by CNN's Brian Stelter:

Saturday's statement by @DonaldJTrumpJr versus Sunday's statement by @DonaldJTrumpJr pic.twitter.com/piyGwjJRjr

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 9, 2017

So when he was first caught, Donald Trump Jr. said the meeting was mostly about the Russian adoption program. Now he says they did talk about the campaign, but it was "vague and made no sense."

Why ask Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort to be at the meeting then? That's what makes no sense.

Unless the meeting was about the election. And if that's the case, then that meeting could be considered collusion between the Trump campaign a Russia.

Let's see how Trump tries to spin this in his morning Twitter diarrhea.

UPDATE: Here's the full statement from Donald Trump Jr. One has to wonder if he realized too late how suspicious it was for him to leave out the information about the campaign.

JUST IN: Donald Trump Jr. responds to reports that he met with Kremlin-linked lawyer during campaign pic.twitter.com/5mqRX38Wio

— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 9, 2017