Or at least he tried to.
The New York Times broke the news yesterday evening that Donald Trump's son met with a Kremlin-linked lawyer because she said she would give him damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
The meeting was also attended by the president’s campaign chairman at the time, Paul J. Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kushner recently disclosed the meeting, though not its content, in confidential government documents described to The New York Times.
The Times reported the existence of the meeting on Saturday. But in subsequent interviews, the advisers and others revealed the motivation behind it.
Rather than deny that the meeting took place, Donald Trump Jr. has admitted that he met with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to see what she has to say.
Obviously I'm the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent... went nowhere but had to listen. https://t.co/ccUjL1KDEa
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017
Trump Jr. also claims that they discussed several other topics during their secret meeting, but he has clearly admitted that he agreed to the meeting in the first place because a Russian operative was offering them damaging information about a fellow American and political opponent.
Many people have reacted to this story by questioning the wisdom of Trump Jr's lawyers for allowing him to make these statements, but (A) we don't know if he consulted them and (B) denying the story may not do him any favors.
According to the New York Times, investigators already know Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting because Kushner and Manafort disclosed it. The exact purpose of the meeting is another story, however, and it seems unlikely that Kushner and Manafort voluntarily disclosed that they agreed to the meeting because they were baited by damaging information about Clinton.
Trump Jr. may be too dimwitted to realize he has implicated Kushner and Manafort as well as himself, or he doesn't care.