Coming to america. Los angeles poised to host another olympic games. But will it be sooner rather than later . Those stories plus riptide rescue, courtesy of a human chain. A new twist in Amelia Earharts disappearance and this photo. And allstar heroics. All the way to right. Back at the wall. Gone. A thrilling finish to the midsummer classic, today, july 12th, 2017. From nbc news, this is today, with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to today on a wednesday morning. Going to get to all those stories in a few. Lets start with our top story, a host of developments of controversy in donald trump jr. s meeting with that russian attorney. And this morning, President Trump is weighing in, as well. Well talk to the president s personal attorney. First, two reports from the white house, starting with peter alexander. Take it away. Reporter good morning to you. The swirling controversy around his son is personal. A team of the president s aides crafted donald trump jr. s original statement, that it was just about adoptions. A statement that the president was aware of, and so incomplete, it required multiple followups. This morning, the president is praising his sons primetime performance on twitter saying, hes innocent. Again, calling the russia story, the greatest witchhunt in mrial history. The president s eldest son on fox news, since the controversy he ignited. Acknowledging some regrets, even though he says he did nothing improper. I would have done something differently. This was before the russian mania. Reporter donald trump jr. Is downplaying that meeting with a russian lawyer tied to the kremlin. For me, this was Opposition Research. They had something, maybe concrete evidence to all of the stories i was hearing before, they were reporting for years. I wanted to hear it out. Reporter adding, he never told his father about the meeting. It was such a nothing, there was nothing to tell. Reporter were there other meetings with russians . I probably met with other people from russia. Not in the context of a formal meeting. Reporter trump jr. Revealing the questions on twitter. They begin june 2016, with Rob Goldstone, who writes he had been contacted by a senior russian government official, offering information that would incriminate Hillary Clinton and her dealings with russia and would useful to your father. Adding, this is highlevel and sensitive information, but is part of russia and support for mr. Trump. Trump jr. s rely, if its what you say, i love it. He wasnt sure if the email was credible. I cant vouch for the information. Someone sent me an email. I cant help what someone sends me. Reporter june 9th, trump jr. , and Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort meet with veselnitskaya. Others saying that transparency didnt go far enough. We cannot rely on any public representations made by the family about their contacts with the russians. Anytime youre in a campaign and you get the offer from a Foreign Government to help your campaign, the answer is no. Reporter the white house is on its heels, with top aides speculating about who within the white houses orbit they blame for these leaks. And there seems to be a shift going on on capitol hill, where many republicans who doubted questions about russian collusion with the Trump Campaign, are now demanding answers. The president is ready for a twoday trip to france, where he is scheduled to hold a brief press conference tomorrow. Thank you. Theres some new questions surrounding the russian attorney that trump jr. Met with. How did she become involved with this in the first place . Nbcs correspondent and the mit mitchell has all this the. Reporter Authorities Say they russia was putting out a net to compromise the Trump Campaign. And they found a convenient target in trump jr. Natalia veselnitskaya, denying she has any connection to the kremlin. Translator no. I am flattered to be called a government attorney. But i never worked with the government in the first place. Reporter with donald trump jr. Fired for meeting with her during the campaign, that meeting was set up with the promise of highlevel and sensitive information, that is part of russia and its governments support for donald trump sr. The emails describe her as a government lawyer. She denies any connection to the kremlin, Intelligence Experts tell nbc news that the meeting may have been sent as a balloon, with veselnitskaya, sent with russian intelligence whether she knew it or not. To test whether donald trump wanted the information, is to go through people he went business with. Reporter donald trump jr. Denies he has useful information. His Attorney Says the meeting lasted 20 to 30 minutes. What could be damaging is that trump jr. Seemed eager to get what he thought would be dirt on Hillary Clinton. Emailing his associate within minutes. If its what you say, i love it. John mclaughlin, former deputy cia director, calls this russian trade craft. It would be a typical thing they can go to the president with and say, look what your son said in this email. Is that something you want to be known publicly . They managed to compromise him and put him in a position where he could have been blackmailed. Reporter perhaps the most surprising part of this drama, that donald trump jr. , facing exposure of the New York Times, released the controversial emails himself. Back to you guys. Were joined by jay sekulow, a member of the president s personal legal team. Mr. Sekulow, good morning to you, sir. Hi, savannah. Good to be with you. Im looking back at some of the things the president has said about the russia investigation and the allegation that somehow his campaign may have coordinated with the russians. Can the president continue to call this a coax, fake news and a charade, when his son has acknowledged the following. He met with an attorney who he believed to be from the highest levels of the russian government, for the purpose of obtaining negative information on Hillary Clinton. Will the president acknowledge this is a legitimate investigation . Theres no illegality. Theyre investigating what violation of what law. Thats what i look at, in any case. Whats the law alleged to be violated here. And the truth of the matter is, a meeting that was described by the release of the emails that donald trump jr. Did yesterday, is not a violation of the law. Isnt that what the investigation seeks to find out . Isnt it too early to make that conclusion . Isnt it too early to do so . I dont think so. And heres why. We know what the facts are. Its clear. The entire chain of emails was released. The chain of emails are out there. And under that scenario, as the facts are, and exactly what happened, theres no vibration of any law. Theres no statute thats in play. It has all of the atmospherics and theres media discussion on it. I understand that. The fact is, theres no law thats been violated because theres not a violation of the law that can take place even with a meeting under that circumstance. Where is the shock and awe . Donald trump jr. Gets an email that this russian attorney has damaging information about Hillary Clinton, that comes as a part of the russian gottvernmens aid to trump. He says, i love it. Lets set this up for later in the summer, i assume it would be closer to the election. Put yourself back a year ago, in the Election Campaign for the presidency of the united states. Hundreds of meetings, probably thousands of meetings, over the course of that year. This was Opposition Research. Opposition research from a foreign hostile government. Were acting like that doesnt ever happen. In reality, we know for a fact, for instance, that the Ukrainian Government was giving information to the Clinton Campaign and to the dnc, regarding to what . Donald trump. So, these things happen. Jay in the meet of the campaign, let me finish this sentence. In the heat of the campaign, 20minute meeting, nothing was violated. Thats it. Did donald trump jr. Lie about this meeting, in your opinion . I didnt hear you. Did donald trump jr. Lie about this meeting, in your opinion . I do not. He said, did i meet with people that were russian . Im sure i did. But none that were set up, and none that i was representing the campaign in any shape or form. This was a meeting with a russian government lawyer and the Campaign ManagerPaul Manafort was in that meeting. He lied, didnt he . You bring up a great point, matt. Thats Paul Manafort. He was on a phone line into this meeting. This was a 20minute meeting that took place, out of thousands of meetings. Go back. Didnt he represent the campaign at this point, if he had the Campaign Manager there . He lied to the New York Times. You want to call it a lie. This was a situation where he was having literally dozens of meetings every day. A 20minute meeting that nothing took place in. Go closer in time, if you dont mind. A couple of weeks after he has this meeting, which he can hoping will be someone from the russian government with damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Thats according to his emails. He is asked pointblank about this allegation from the Clinton Campaign, did the russians meddle . Are they trying to help your father . And he says, that is phony. They are lying. Wasnt that untruthful . He knew he had the meeting weeks before. With no information provided. Just because the meeting didnt turn out as he had hoped, doesnt change his intent. But you asked the question, did that violate something . Wasnt that the opposite of what he said . There was no information that was exchanged. There was no information that was exchanged. But the question posed hold on. You asked me a question. A meeting took place. No exchange of information. The meeting ended up producinin nothing. And now, theres a media frenzy going out because russia is in vogue to attack. As the great involvement in the campaign. The fact is, zero happened here. If nothing happens but just to close the loop on this issue. The question he was asked on cnn in july was, are the russians trying to help your father . Do they favor your father in this campaign . And he said that is phony and that is a lie. When he, in fact, had received an email that states, the russians want to help your father. And nothing came of that. So, heres the question, and this is what i think has to be asked. Is the meaning of itself, and a lot of legal experts said this. The meaning of itself, under the pretenses there were. The pretext was supposed to be this information about Hillary Clinton. What did it end up being . Nothing related to that at all. He said the meeting was nonsensical. Nothing took place. Nothing transpired. Theres no law that was violated here. And we can create this discussion. But the reality is, when you asked me at the beginning, whats at issue here legally . There is there illegality in this meeting. What is interesting also, and people are going through the email. Thats fine. Donald trump jr. Released the email. Unlike Hillary Clinton who deleted 33 emails. Thats not a great story. And donald trump jr. Said im releasing the emails to be completely transparent. He did that about an hour or so after the New York Times called him and said we have this story. Were going to publish it. Would you like to comment on it . His represent said, give us more time. At that time, he released this email chain. Thats not being transparent. Thats trying to appear as if youre transparent when youre backed into a corner. Look, his lawyers made the decision to release the entire chain of emails. That was the decision they made yesterday. They were going to be publ h published. So what . When asked about this meeting on saturday, he told the New York Times it was about russian adoption and nothing else. Thats what the meeting was and the purpose of the meeting was to obtain this information. If you want to be transparent, you could have released this chain weeks ago, months ago, when the russia story exploded about possible meetings. Two things here, the meeting was about the adoption issue. That was a correct statement he made. Correct but misleading. Right . This is what the meeting was about. Number two, you say we can release i represent the president of the united states. We were not aware of this, obviously, the email. We were not aware of the meeting. The president did not attend the meeting. Was only made aware of this email you know when the president saw the email, when everybody else did. At one point in the email exchange, Rob Goldstone wrote to donald trump jr. , i can also send this info to your father, via rhona. Thats his personal assistant. Did you check and rehocheck rons emails . Rona works for the trump administration. I work for the president of the united states. The president did not see any emails relating to this at all. Can you explain the following timeline . On june 3rd, the Trump Campaign gets a call from goldstone, setting up this meeting, offering damaging information on Hillary Clinton. And four days later, the president says im going to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton coming next week . Well, there was Opposition Research was doing done every, single day, by the campaigns. Thats the nature of the way it is. There was information that came out day after day. As did against the president. That was a correct statement. It was not based on any of this. The fact is, this meeting i want to be clear on this as the president s lawyer. I said it already. The president was not aware and did not attend this meeting and was only made aware of the email and the chain of emails, he only saw yesterday as it was released. It he was made aware very, very recently by his lawyers. Jay sekulow, thank you very much for your time. My pleasure. Thank you. Theres a lot more to go to this morning, including investigators combing a mississippi field for clues after mondays military plane crash test test. That killed 1 mari ad a navy sailor. One of the victims according to our station in dallas, was Staff Sergeant michael snowden. He was a Staff Sergeant. And his father tells our nbc affiliate in burlington, vermont, that johnson planned to retire next year. The disaster was the deadliest marine crash anywhere in the world in more than a decade. Lets turn to al for our first look at the weather. Mr. Roker, good morning. Good morning, guys. Six tornadoes reported yesterday. One of them in iowa. This is conroy, iowa. It damaged some treatments, uprooted some things. D damaged a few buildings. Thankfully nobody was injured. More Severe Weather to talk about today. Flash flood watches and warnings from minnesota all the way into michigan. Ae were going to be watching Severe Weather. From grand island, madison, to cleveland. Tomorrow, a severe risk, from terre haute, cleveland and pittsburgh for large hail and damaging winds. This system will be pushing to the east, causing problems the midwest to the northeast today, right into tomorrow. Rainfall amounts will be anywhere from three to five inches in some regions, espec l especially in central michigan, all the way to parts of western new york and western p. A. Could be rainfall amounts of one to two inches per hour. Were going t burke at farmers, weve seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. Even a coupe soup. [woman] so beautiful. [man] beautiful just like you. [woman] oh, why thank you. [burke] and we covered it, november sixth, twothousandnine. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum good morning, im kari hall, San Francisco today will see patchy low clouds and clearing as well. Temperatures today reaching into the mid 60s. Tomorrow, too, but then it warms to the low 70s in times for the weekend. Well go from the upper 80s today to the lower 90s. Dangerous ramping up, well see the inland valleys as hot as 101 on saturday. And thats your latest weather. Guys . All right, al. Thank you very much. Coming up, more than meets the eye. Theres a new twist in the Amelia Earhart mystery this morning, tied to that photo we showed you last week. And the olympic flame set to burn brightly in los angeles for a third time. And the question this morning, when . First this, is today on nbc. Just ahead, the heroic moments strangers form a lengthy human chain to save a family from drowning. And hodas here. 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