US President Donald Trump’s eldest son said he was not worried that he could be jailed over his role in the Russia probe, but suggested investigators might try to “create” legal difficulties for him.
In an interview with ABC that aired Tuesday, he also attacked as “disgusting” the senior administration official who wrote a recent anonymous op-ed detailing a chaotic White House, and acknowledged the president’s trusted inner circle has shrunk since the piece’s publication.
Trump Jr has been under scrutiny for his role in apparent efforts to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from Russian sources during the presidential campaign, including when he met with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer and other Trump campaign officials in June 2016 in Trump Tower.
Asked on ABC’s “Good Morning America” whether he was scared he was in legal jeopardy and could go to jail, Trump Jr replied: “I’m not, because I know what I did and I’m not worried about any of that.
“That doesn’t mean they won’t try to create something,” he added. “We’ve seen that happen with everything. But again, I’m not.”
Trump Jr last year released a series of emails that included a 2016 message from an intermediary offering information that would “incriminate Hillary” and help the elder Trump in his campaign.
“If it’s what you say I love it,” Trump Jr wrote back.
Trump’s son was questioned at length by the Senate Judiciary Committee, one of the congressional panels examining whether any of Trump’s campaign associates colluded with Russian officials to interfere in the 2016 US election.
Several of Trump’s former associates have been questioned or indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller, or have pleaded guilty to crimes including campaign-finance violations.
“I understand that they are trying to get my father and they’ll do anything they can to get that,” Trump Jr said.
Last week the White House was rocked by an explosive op-ed in the New York Times in which an anonymous official wrote that White House aides were so alarmed by the president’s “erratic” and amoral behaviour that they were actively working to undermine him.
“I imagine this is a very low-level person,” Trump Jr said, adding that the piece’s publication has made his father more wary.
“I think there are people in there he can trust,” he said. “It’s just a much smaller group than I would like it to be.”
