House Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Adam Schiff said Tuesday that Donald Trump Jr.'s emails regarding a meeting last year with a Russia-linked attorney pointed to "a very demonstrable pattern of obfuscation" by the White House about dealings between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
"Plainly, as we saw the constantly evolving stories from the president's son, we cannot rely on any public representations that are made by the family about their contacts with the Russians," the California Democrat told reporters at the Capitol.
"We have now seen a very demonstrable pattern of obfuscation and dissembling about these meetings," he said.
Trump Jr. Tuesday released the emails in response to reports beginning Saturday by The New York Times about his arranging a meeting with the Russian lawyer last June and that other Moscow operatives said that the Kremlin had damaging information on Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The June 9, 2016, meeting had not been disclosed until recently by two other participants in the meeting, Jared Kushner, Trump Jr.'s brother-in-law and current White House senior adviser, and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
"The e-mails themselves, which have now been verified by the Trump campaign itself, by the president's son himself, make very clear that government officials within the Russian government had information they thought was damaging to Secretary Clinton that they wanted to share with the campaign," Schiff told reporters.
"They made arrangements to provide a channel to do that, and this Russian advocate was that channel.
"This is obviously very significant, deeply disturbing, new public information about direct contacts between the Russian government and its intermediaries and the very center of the Trump family, campaign and organization," he said.
"Obviously, we need to get to the bottom of exactly what happened."
The House committee's probe is being helmed by Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas.
Two Senate committees and a Justice Department team headed by special counsel Robert Mueller are also investigation possible Trump campaign ties to Russia.
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