DONALD JR/MICHAEL COHEN/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump on Friday [7-27-18] said he had no prior knowledge of a June 2016 meeting his eldest son had with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower, disputing an account that a person familiar with the matter says his former lawyer Michael Cohen is planning to tell the special counsel…Mr. Trump and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. , have repeatedly denied that the president had advance knowledge of the June 2016 meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with strong links to the Kremlin. The younger Mr. Trump last year released emails showing he accepted the offer for the meeting after he was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, his father’s Democratic presidential opponent, that he was told had been collected as part of a Russian government effort to help his father. Participants in the meeting have testified that no such information was offered, and that the younger Mr. Trump was disappointed by the outcome…Now, escalating his clash with the president, Mr. Cohen is willing to tell Special Counsel Robert Mueller that he was present when the younger Mr. Trump informed his father about the meeting before it took place, the person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Cohen doesn’t have any evidence, such as an audio recording, to back up his claim, the person said. CNN first reported Mr. Cohen’s plan on Thursday [7-26-18].”
-Rebecca Ballhaus, “Trump Denies He Knew Beforehand of Meeting With Russian Lawyer,” The Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2018 10:04 am