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The US President has hailed his son Donald Jr as a "high-quality person" after he released emails revealing his meeting with a Russian lawyer.
The eldest of the president's sons held discussions with the lawyer last year about an offer of Russian information to "incriminate" Hillary Clinton.
He has now tweeted emails relating to the meeting - and his father has lauded him as a "high-quality person" while praising his "transparency".
The White House branded talk of perjury and treason over alleged links to Moscow as "ridiculous", adding the President is "frustrated" Russia continues to be an issue and would love to move on.
Mr Trump Jr revealed he had been in contact with the lawyer over an offer to provide his father's presidential campaign with "official documents and information" that would "incriminate" Democratic rival Mrs Clinton and "her dealings with Russia".
The offer of "very high-level and sensitive information" was described to Mr Trump Jr as "very useful to your father", and claimed to be "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr Trump".
Donald Trump Jr campaigning for his father at the Republican National Convention in July last year
The information was said to be from the "crown prosecutor of Russia", with Mr Trump Jr's emails revealing he was offered a meeting with a "Russian government attorney".
In reply to the offer of "ultra sensitive" information on Mrs Clinton, Mr Trump Jr said: "If it's what you say I love it."
Mr Trump Jr used his Twitter account to publish the correspondence about a controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer.
The meeting took place at Trump Tower in New York
In the email chain, Mr Trump Jr is shown in contact with music publicist Rob Goldstone to arrange to meet Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York, on 9 June last year.
After the release of the emails, the US President said in a statement: "My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency."
Mr Trump Jr has previously confirmed the meeting took place, which was also attended by the President's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chief at the time.
Alleged links between the Trump campaign and Russia - along with Moscow's possible meddling in the US election - are currently the focus of a number of inquiries, including a probe by special counsel Robert Mueller, an ex-FBI chief.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said the emails show the Trump campaign "sought to collude with a hostile foreign power to subvert America's democracy", although Republicans played down the revelations.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, called on Mr Trump Jr to hand over all documents related to contact with Russia.
The emergence of Mr Trump Jr's meeting on 9 June, first revealed by the New York Times, has prompted calls for the President's son to appear before a congressional committee.
In a statement, also published on Twitter, Mr Trump Jr said he was releasing the emails in order to be "totally transparent".
He said "the woman" he met "had no information to provide and wanted to talk about adoption policy" as well as Russian sanctions.
Donald Trump Jr published the emails on Twitter
Mr Trump Jr had earlier mocked the "desperation" of the media and Democrats over the "nonsense meeting".
Later on Tuesday, Ms Veselnitskaya claimed she "never had compromising information" on Mrs Clinton and "could not have had".
She told reporters it is "not true" she had information and Mr Trump Jr "was told so".
The lawyer added she does "not represent anyone other than myself" and was offered a meeting with Mr Trump Jr in a "private setting not connected to the fact that he is the son of the presidential candidate".
Ms Veselnitskaya had previously told NBC "maybe they were looking for information", adding: "They wanted it so badly."
Moscow has said it had no connection with Ms Veselnitskaya.
Trump cameo in Russian singer's music video
Mr Goldstone said on Monday he had set up the meeting on behalf of his client Emin Agalarov, but that it ended up being "the most inane nonsense I've ever heard".
Mr Trump Jr said he had known Mr Agalarov, a singer from a billionaire family who once recorded a music video with the US President, since they staged the 2013 Miss Universe contest in Moscow.
Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claimed on Tuesday there is an "anti-Russian bias" in the US Congress, as he threatened "counter actions" against American diplomatic sanctions on Moscow.
He suggested former President Barack Obama's outgoing administration had aimed to "poison to a maximum US-Russian ties" and create a "trap" for Mr Trump late last year.
(SKY NEWS)
