Russian, WikiLeaks Emails Emerge In Donald Trump Jr. Hearing

WASHINGTON, DC — A set of newly revealed emails showing ties between Russians and Trump associates is complicating the story about the campaign's knowledge of efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. The emails, obtained by CNN and The Washington Post, emerged after President Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., testified privately before congressional investigators in the ongoing Russia investigation.

One email shows that Trump Jr. received an encryption code from a person calling himself Mike Erickson in September 2016 to access WikiLeaks documents, CNN reported. The U.S. intelligence community has said that WikiLeaks served as a front group to disseminate Russian propaganda and hacked information during the campaign.

Trump and multiple members of his campaign have repeatedly said that there was no "collusion" between them and the Russian government, which U.S. intelligence agencies believe engaged in covert action to influence the 2016 election. However, since the president's inauguration, numerous communications between Trump team members and Russia that were previously undisclosed, including the newly reported emails, have come to light.

CNN initially reported that Trump Jr. tweeted about WikiLeaks on Sept. 4, the same day he received the email from Erickson, though his lawyer told CNN that he has no memory of receiving the email. The Washington Post reported later on Friday, however, that CNN got the date of the email wrong. According to the Post, Trump Jr. received the email from Erickson on Sept. 14, after the WikiLeaks documents were already available.

"We understand that the media reported 12 hours prior to this email that the DNC emails had been hacked or leaked," Trump Jr.'s lawyer said in a statement. "We do not know who Mike Erickson is. We have no idea who he is. We never responded to the email."

Lawmakers also pressed Donald Trump Jr. on previously undisclosed emails tied to the Trump Tower meeting he held along with Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and campaign manager held with a group of people promising campaign help from the Russian government before the 2016 election, CNN reported Thursday. Those emails reveal that the British publicist, Rob Goldstone, who set up the meeting continued to communicate with the campaign, according to the report.

Goldstone even suggested that the Trump campaign set up a page on the Russian social media site VK, the emails suggest. He reportedly wrote that this plan had been agreed to by "Don and Paul" — referring to President Trump's eldest son and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The Washington Post reported that Konstantin Sidorko, an executive at VK, emailed then-candidateTrump's Social Media Director Dan Scavino, just a few days before the election to discuss the campaign setting up a page on on the Russian site.

Another email from Goldstone, sent just days after the Trump Tower meeting and in the wake of the Democratic National Committee email leak, referred to the cyberhacking incident as "eerily weird" in light of the meeting, according to CNN. This email was sent to another person who attended the meeting.

Except for the email containing the encryption code to the WikiLeaks documents, none of the messages were sent to Trump Jr. He has denied any knowledge of their contents.

Watch Now: Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. Were Offered WikiLeaks Docs Last Year

Update: This story has been updated to reflect The Washington Post's story challenging CNN's reporting about the data of Erickson's email.

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