Don Jr.'s new defense: Collusion 'covered under the First Amendment'
That’s not how the First Amendment works.
On the heels of panicked House Republicans’ fraudulent Russia report, Donald Trump Jr. rolled out the most absurd defense of collusion yet.
Trump’s Republican stooges have issued a declaration of “no collusion,” but on Tuesday morning Don Jr. flailed defending the actual collusion he personally engaged in. Asked by “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade if he wished he had disclosed the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, Trump rattled off a litany of familiar excuses, and one new one.
“It was the biggest waste of time of my life,” Trump Jr. said of the meeting.
“When you are on a campaign trail like that, there’s so much going on. Like, I didn’t even think about it. By the way, and they talk about me not disclosing. I’m not in government. I had no obligation to disclose it.
“I took a meeting from someone that we had done business with years before. I said okay, fine, I’ll listen to you,” he added. “I thought that was pretty much covered under the First Amendment. So I listened.”
Trump’s own emails contradict his claims about the meeting, demonstrating a high level of planning and an intent to conspire with people who were being explicitly identified as agents of a hostile foreign government. Even Trump ally Steve Bannon pointed out that Don Jr. had a duty to disclose the meeting to the FBI.
But the notion that the First Amendment covers an explicit attempt to conspire with America’s enemies is perhaps the most absurd and ignorant defense that any Trump figure has given to date.
It also reveals that Don Jr. is all too aware of the fact that the House Republicans can run interference for Trump’s Fox News fan base, but they can’t stop special counsel Robert Mueller.
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