ETHICS/TRUMP FAMILY/DONALD JR: “Former ethics lawyers for presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush both think Donald Trump Jr. broke the law when he met with a Russian lawyer to get purported damaging information on Hillary Clinton.
In an editorial penned Tuesday [7-11-17] night in the New York Times, the two called Trump Jr.’s defense ‘nonsense’ and said they would have called the FBI immediately in such a situation.
‘As ethics lawyers, we have worked on political campaigns for decades and have never heard of an offer like this one,’ wrote Norm Eisen and Richard Painter. Eisen is the chairman and Painter is the vice chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics. ‘The promised Russian *documents and information* would have been an illegal campaign contribution from a foreign government — and a priceless one.’
They said this meeting could tangle with conspiracy law, criminal violations and campaign finance laws among other legal liabilities.
Painter, who served for over two years in Bush’s administration, said on Tuesday that people should not collect information from Russia unless they ‘want to be accused of treason.’ He also said such acts would not have been tolerated during the Bush presidency.”
-Diamond Naga Siu, “Obama and Bush ethics lawyers call Trump Jr.’s defense of Russia meeting ‘nonsense’,” Politico, July 12, 2017 09:59am