Trump's Admission on Trump Tower Meeting with Russians Major Retreat - Senator

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump's admission about his son Donald Trump Jr's June 2016 meeting with Russians in Trump Tower is a major retreat and deepens the president's criminal culpability, US Senator Richard Blumenthal said in a statement on Monday.

"President Trump's concession on Trump Tower meeting with Russian agents shows enveloping legal quicksand of obstructing justice & escalating exposure of Donald Trump, Jr," Blumenthal said in a Twitter message.  "President Trump's admission is a major retreat, deepening his criminal culpability — & Donald Trump, Jr.'s  — for Trump Tower meeting with Russian agents to get illegal 'dirt' on Clinton & lies afterward."

On Sunday, Trump admitted in a Twitter message that the Trump Tower meeting involving his son was aimed at getting information on his opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, but he insisted that these types of meetings are "totally legal and done all the time in politics."

The President also said he knew nothing about the meeting before it took place.

READ MORE: 'He's Fighting Back': WH on Trump's Call for Sessions to End Russia Probe

Donald Trump Jr. has previously admitted that he indeed met with the Russians, but he called the meeting a "nothing conversation," saying it was about adoption and completely unrelated to Clinton and the 2016 presidential election.

Russia has denied all allegations of interference in the 2016 election, and both Trump and the Kremlin firmly reject accusations of collusion.