Over the past few days, The New York Times has reported on a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer during the 2016 election, and the details of said meeting concern some lawmakers. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's 2016 running mate and junior Virginia senator, told reporters on Tuesday that the investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia could now include treason.
"The investigation — it's not, nothing is proven yet, but we're now beyond obstruction of justice in terms of what's being investigated," Kaine said. "This is moving into perjury, false statements and even potentially treason."
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Congress and the FBI have both been investigating the possibility that the Trump campaign was involved in Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 election (for a full recap check out our timeline of the Trump-Russia scandal).
The New York Times reported that Donald Jr. met with a Russian lawyer after he was offered dirt on Clinton, and that Trump's oldest son knew the information was part of the Russian government's efforts to help Trump win the election.
On Tuesday, The Times published the email sent to Donald Jr. on June 3, 2016 offering the damaging information about Trump's 2016 opponent. The email specifically says the documents would "incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia" and would be "very useful" to Donald Jr.'s father. It also included a disclaimer that "this is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump."
Donald Jr. replied: "If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer."
The first son continues to deny any wrongdoing and released the entire email chain the same day The Times published it, writing in a statement that he wants to be transparent.
He wrote: "The information they suggested they had about Hillary Clinton I thought was Political Opposition Research."
Now, Kaine has suggested Congress will investigate whether members of the Trump campaign committed treason by working with Russia to interfere in the election. President Trump has not commented on Donald Jr.'s 2016 meeting.
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