WHITE HOUSE —
U.S. President Donald Trump has renewed his claim that questions about links between his presidential campaign and Russia amount to "the greatest Witch Hunt in political history."
His comments on Twitter came a day after his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., disclosed emails that showed how he and other key Trump aides met with a Russian lawyer who offered incriminating information about the real estate mogul's election challenger, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The younger Trump said in an interview Tuesday night on Fox News he did not tell his father about the meeting, and also dismissed charges of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia as "ridiculous."
President Trump's tweets Wednesday praised his son's performance.
"My son Donald did a good job last night. He was open, transparent and innocent," Trump wrote.
In a statement Tuesday read by a White House spokeswoman, Trump called his son "a high-quality person." The spokeswoman deflected other questions about the younger Trump's email exchange with Rob Goldstone, a British music publicist who was representing Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with the younger Trump in June 2016 shortly after his father clinched the Republican Party's nomination for president.
The younger Trump released his email chain with Goldstone after The New York Times told him that it was about to publish the emails.
VOA's Capitol Hill correspondents said the disclosure that Donald Trump Jr. eagerly sought damaging information about Clinton ahead of the November election sent shockwaves through Congress and prompted strong reactions from Democratic members in particular.
Goldstone told the younger Trump on June 3 last year that "the Crown prosecutor of Russia ... 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," the email said.
Within minutes, the younger Trump replied: "If it's what you say, I love it, especially [for use] later in the summer."
Democratic senators, such as Chris Murphy of Connecticut, said Tuesday's developments in the tale of Donald Trump Jr. and his meeting with the Russian lawyer "starts to look like collusion ... open, knowing collusion with the Russian government" on the part of the Trump campaign team. Republican senators were more cautious in their reaction, VOA's Michael Bowman reported, but Susan Collins of Maine said "the emails deserve a thorough investigation" by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Congressman Adam Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, saw the email disclosure as a "very significant, deeply disturbing development," and said he wanted Trump's son to testify before his committee, VOA's Katherine Gypson reported.
"This is absolutely not only a breach of norms but a breach of civil responsibility to the country," Schiff told reporters at a news conference late Tuesday. "When you get approached by a foreign government to interfere in an election, you go to the FBI."
"We must investigate," said Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings, because the email chain "confirms that the president's son was both aware of and supported the Russian government's efforts to help [Trump] get elected."
Cummings, the senior Democrat on the House committee that oversees the executive branch of the U.S. government, called the latest account of contacts between the Trump campaign team and Russia "a sad day for our country."
Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said the issue "is problematic" and that the younger Trump "definitely has to testify" before congressional investigators.
In his emails to the younger Trump, Goldstone referred to Veselnitskaya as "the Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow." The Russian government has denied knowing Veselnitskaya and rejects U.S. claims that it meddled in the election.
The subsequent meeting was also attended by then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and the future president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the husband of Trump's daughter Ivanka. Both Kushner and his wife are now White House advisers to the president.
The June 9 meeting with Veselnitskaya was the earliest confirmed encounter between senior Trump campaign officials and Russian interests during the campaign.