Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, but Donald Trump Jr. told Congress an even bigger lie than Cohen did.
Cohen told Congress that they discontinued their business talks with the Russians in January of 2016, but he has now confessed that those talks continued through the summer of 2016.
Junior, on the other hand, told Congress that talks ceased in 2014 according to Senate records reviewed by NPR.
Trump Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017 that although there had been negotiations surrounding a prospective Trump Tower in Moscow, they concluded without result "at the end" of 2014.
"But not in 2015 or 2016?" Trump Jr. was asked.
"Certainly not '16," he said. "There was never a definitive end to it. It just died of deal fatigue."
Don Jr. can't claim ignorance. I mean, he routinely gives me the impression that he was dropped on his head, but he runs the Trump Organization in his father's absence. He would have known all about this deal and the talks between Cohen and the Russians.
Even if he didn't know about it in early 2016, Junior said this in September of 2017 long after he took over the company with his brother Eric. Cohen was still on Team Trump in 2017.
Although Junior hasn't been charged yet, I think this tells us that special prosecutor Robert Mueller could charge him at any time. I suspect he hasn't because he's still building a larger case.