Is Trump Jr.’s Meeting Evidence of a Conspiracy or a Circus?

Details continue to emerge about the June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. (joined by Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort) and an odd company of Russian players. By Trump Jr.’s own admission, he took the meeting on the promise of “dirt” on the Clinton campaign. But the actual content of the discussion remains unclear.

On this week’s first episode of The E.R., FP’s executive editor for news Sharon Weinberger is joined by Evelyn Farkas, The Intercept’s Sam Biddle, and FP’s Amie Ferris-Rotman and Jenna McLaughlin. The panel digs deeper into the widening cast of characters in the Russian collusion scandal. Were they Kremlin emissaries and does it matter?

Evelyn N. Farkas is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, president of Farkas Global Strategies, and national security analyst for NBC/MSNBC. She served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia from 2012 to 2015 and has served almost 20 years divided equally between the executive and legislative branches of government. She is the author of Fractured States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, Ethiopia, and Bosnia in the 1990s. Follow her on Twitter: @EvelynNFarkas.

Sam Biddle is a New York-based writer and technology reporter at The Intercept. He previously worked as a senior writer at Gawker, editor of Valleywag, and a senior reporter at Gizmodo. He has contributed to The Awl, GQ, and Vice. Sam has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, VH1, Spike, Bloomberg, NPR, BBC News, and many other TV/radio programs. Follow him on Twitter: @samfbiddle.

Amie Ferris-Rotman is FP’s Moscow correspondent. She previously reported across Russia and the Soviet Union for the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Between Russia tours, she was Reuters’ senior correspondent in Afghanistan. Follow her on Twitter: @Amie_FR.

Jenna McLaughlin is FP’s intelligence reporter, focusing on the culture, dynamics, and events happening in the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the other 15 members of the intelligence community. Follow her on Twitter: @JennaMC_Laugh.

Sharon Weinberger is FP’s executive editor for news. She is the author of The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency That Changed the World. Follow her on Twitter: @weinbergersa.

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