In the aftermath of a New York Times report on Thursday that Mueller’s team informed the Trump legal team that they want to question the president about tweets aimed at Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former FBI chief James Comey, Trump emphatically denied knowing about the infamous 2016 meeting with Russian officials at Trump Tower.

In slamming ongoing Mueller’s Russia investigation (which has now expanded now to examining the president’s tweets for evidence of obstruction), the President labeled it a “rigged witch hunt”.

Trump’s ex-attorney has now claimed that the President knew in advance about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting in which Russians were expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton. CNN reported Thursday night, that Cohen is willing to repeat the stunning assertion to special counsel Robert Mueller.

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The 2016 Trump campaign had several meetings with individuals who had Russian connections. In June 2016, a meeting was held in Trump Tower in New York City between three senior members of the Donald Trump presidential campaign – Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort – and at least five other people, including Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

The meeting was arranged by publicist and long-time Trump acquantiance, Rob Goldstone on behalf of his client, singer-songwriter Emin Agalarov. It was disclosed to U.S. government officials when Kushner filed a revised version of his security clearance form.

Donald Trump Jr. initially told the press that the meeting was held to discuss adoptions of Russian children by Americans. In July 2017, Trump Jr. tweeted that he agreed to the meeting with the understanding that he would receive information damaging to Hillary Clinton, and that he was conducting opposition research.

Goldstone had stated in his email that the Russian government was involved. Robert Mueller, the special counsel of the Department of Justice in charge of Russia-related investigations, is investigating the emails and the meeting, and their relation to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.

Federal authorities have seized more than 100 recordings made by Cohen, including the bombshell tape CNN published on Tuesday that appeared to feature the president discussing a payoff to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, the Washington Post reports.

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President Trump had earlier fired back at his former personal attorney Michael Cohen after the release of a recording Cohen secretly made of a conversation between the two men.

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