In a head scratching defense, Donald Trump Jr. blamed the email itself for him setting up a meeting with Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner that alleged to have damaging information against the Clinton campaign from the Russian government.

Sean Hannity interviewed Trump Jr. and asked him about the emails that he released today before the NY Times released them.

Hannity began by asking him to explain who Rob Goldstone is.

He said Goldstone is a talent manager for a Russian singer, who performed at Miss Universe, but he met him at a golf course.

Hannity described the email and asks, "This email comes in. What are you thinking?"

He replied, "Someone has information on our opponent...things are going a million miles an hour. --we just won Indiana --- I've heard about all these things but maybe this is something, I should hear him out."

Junior just admitted that he was very interested in gathering oppo-research from a foreign government.

Hannity asks, "When you read the parts about the Russian government or Russia supporting your father, did that put off any sirens in your head?

Fredo feigned confusion on the question, but said, " I wanted to hear him out and play it out and see what happens, people are trying to reach out to you all the time with this."

Hannity asked, "What did you think it might be?"

Trump Jr. then , made some very weird statements about what he was thinking and why he did what he did.

Remember, he wanted to give a Pulitzer prize to one of the big promoters of the nutty and discredited "pizzagate conspiracy" that resulted in a violent action and an arrest.

Junior said, "I'd been reading about scandals that people were probably under reporting for a long time so maybe it was something it had to do with one of those things - perhaps her involvement with the Russian government."

He continued, "Again, I didn't know there was any credibility, I didn't know there was anything behind it. I can't vouch for the information."

He said he never received any information because they had none so why is he now saying he can't vouch for it?

Did he slip up and admit that he was given information?

Then he made no sense at all.

And then he claimed that his actions were "pretty common."

"Somebody sent me an email. I can't help what someone sends me, you know? I read it. I responded accordingly and if there was something interesting there..., I think it's pretty common," Trump Jr. said.

Of course you can't help what somebody sends you. Is that a defense now? We all get unsolicited emails from a wide variety of people and places. But it's up to you if you want to read it. and then act on it.

And he didn't respond "accordingly," he responded horrifically.

The protocol would be to alert the FBI that a foreign government is contacting you with intelligence against your rival. Instead he confirmed that the Trump campaign was at least interested in colluding with the Russian government.

And he admitted that if he found anything interesting he would have used it. We can't even be certain that he didn't get anything and did not use it.

And as we noted earlier, The Trump timeline on Russia is very troubling.

The more he talks, the more he indicts himself, just like his dad.

As Charles Krauthammer said, "Well, it’s a hell of a defense to say your collusion might be incompetent.”

This all happened in the first two minutes of the interview.

UPDATE: Summer funder!

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