Trump Jr dismisses legal concerns over Russian lawyer meeting
Washington, Aug 8 : US President Donald Trump's son has said his 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer was about "essentially nothing" relevant to claims of collusion.
Donald Trump Jr called the media uproar over the meeting "the ultimate distraction" from his father's success, BBC reported on Tuesday.
Trump Jr's meeting with a Kremlin-linked attorney at Trump Tower in New York could constitute a breach of US campaign rules, experts say.
The president argued the Trump Tower meeting was legal in a tweet on Sunday. Trump said his son took the meeting to "get information on an opponent", contradicting a previous statement from the Trump camp.
Speaking on the Laura Ingraham Show on Monday night, the president's son said the meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya lasted 20 minutes and primarily focused on Russian adoptions.
Trump Jr has previously admitted he agreed to the introduction after he was promised damaging information about his father's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
He told Ingraham that adoptions were "the primary thing that we had spoken about in the meeting".
"You know that's not the premise that got them in the room... it was essentially a bait and switch to talk about that, and everyone has basically said that in testimony already," he said.
"It ended up being about essentially nothing that was relevant to any of these things. That's all it is and that's all they've got. "The president's eldest son also blamed Democrats for wanting to detract from his father's achievements.
"That is, I guess, the ultimate distraction from what's really going on in this country which is, you have a Republican president, a very conservative president, who is getting stuff done."
The meeting is being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of his inquiry into Russia's alleged role to help Trump win the presidency.
Moscow has repeatedly denied claims it interfered in the November 2016 presidential elections.
President Trump and his son deny any collusion, and the president has tweeted that "collusion is not a crime".
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Udupi: 48-year-old man loses Rs 46.92 lakh in online share market investment fraud
Udupi: In yet another digital scam, a 48-year-old man from Karnataka was duped into losing a staggering Rs 46.92 lakh in an online fraud disguised as a share market investment scheme.
The victim, identified as Avinash from Kundapur, lodged a complaint after realising he had been duped by fraudsters. He was added to a WhatsApp group named "Surendra VIP Free Bull Stock Sharing Group-X98" on September 17 and the group claimed to offer lucrative opportunities for earning profits through stock market investments, as reported by Deccan Herald on Monday. Trusting the group's promises, Avinash followed their advice and opened a ‘Zerodha D-mat account’ to start his investment journey.
Initially, Avinash invested Rs 10,000 as per the group's instructions. However, the scammers soon directed him to another demat account, "EMCEE – Invest Group Inc," and encouraged him to invest larger amounts. Believing in the potential for returns, Avinash transferred a total of Rs 46.92 lakh from his bank account to various accounts provided by unknown individuals.
The transactions were made via Google Pay and online banking in phased payments.
Avinash mentioned in the complaint that despite the significant sums invested, he never received any returns or profits, and the fraudsters failed to refund the amount, leading to massive financial loss.
After realising he had been scammed, Avinash filed a complaint to the CEN station in Udupi.
A case has been registered under Sections 66 (C), 66 (D) of IT Act and section 318 (4) of BNS act.
