The #TrumpImpeachmentParty has had so many false starts and stumbles over the past five months. To be fair, if Donald Trump was a Democrat who did even a fraction of what he’s already done, he would have already been impeached. One of the big focuses of the independent counsel’s investigation is the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russian officials during the campaign and the transition. At the heart of it, we need to know what Trump promised to Russia and what Russia promised him. At the heart of it, we need to know the extent of the collusion between Russian operatives and Donald Trump and his operatives. There’s already enough evidence of collusion between Russian operatives and people like Mike Flynn, Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner. But it looks like Donald Trump Jr. was feeling left out.

The New York Times reported this weekend that Don Jr. met with some shady Russians about possibly getting his hands on some of the Russian-hacked or Guccifer-hacked (and Russian-vetted) information about the DNC and Clinton campaign. Don Jr. ended up making an on-the-record statement to the NYT in which he admits that SURE, he met with this shady Russian to get information about Hillary Clinton, but he didn’t end up getting any information, so it doesn’t count at collusion right?!? Here’s the statement Don Jr. made:

In a statement on Sunday, Donald Trump Jr. said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance. “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he said, “the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

He said she then turned the conversation to adoption of Russian children and the Magnitsky Act, an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers. The law so enraged President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that he retaliated by halting American adoptions of Russian children.

“It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting,” Mr. Trump said.

[From The NYT via WaPo]

So now people in the Trump family are openly admitting to meeting with shady Russians because those Russians promised to provide information about Hillary Clinton. This is from Donald Jr.’s own mouth to the NYT!! As New York Magazine notes, not only does Don Jr.’s statement to the NYT implicate him in the ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia, it actually PROVES that Don Jr. – and the campaign – openly broke federal law. Also: Don Jr. claimed Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort went to this meeting too, but that he didn’t tell them what it was about. Because I guess Paul and Jared had nothing else to do that day, in the middle of the campaign?

Photos courtesy of Getty.