Article snippet: White House press secretary Sean Spicer held a briefing for the first time in weeks, off camera, in which he appeared to mischaracterize the motivation for Donald Trump Jr.'s controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer during the presidential campaign. Since news of that June 9, 2016, meeting broke last week, Trump Jr. has released multiple statements about the meeting and published emails that showed the planning that went into the meeting. In the emails and as repeated in his statements, it is clear that the reason went to the meeting — along with Donald Trump Sr.'s then-campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and then-campaign adviser Jared Kushner — was in the hope of obtaining damaging information about his father's then-opponent Hillary Clinton. Spicer's statement today, however, did not reflect that. "There was nothing, as far as we know, that would lead anyone to believe that there was anything except for discussion about adoption and the Magnitsky Act," Spicer said, "but I would refer you back to counsel on that one." In the first statement that Donald Trump Jr. released about the meeting, on July 8, he described it as a "short introductory meeting ... about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago." He added details in a statement released on July 9, however, noting that he was asked to have the meeting "with an individual who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign." The st... Link to the full article to read more