White House confirms Donald Trump ‘weighed in’ on son’s statement about meeting with Russian lawyer

The White House has confirmed US President Donald Trump influenced a statement written by his son denying he had a meeting with a Russian lawyer related to the 2016 presidential campaign.

On the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany last month, the president’s advisers discussed how to respond to a revelation that Donald Trump Jr had met a Russian lawyer in June 2016, the Washington Post reports.

The president dictated a media statement which said Trump Jr and the lawyer had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children”, in a statement issued to the New York Times that cited unnamed people with knowledge of the deliberations.

The claims were later shown to be misleading.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a briefing today President Trump "certainly didn't dictate (the statement), but ... he weighed in, offered suggestion like any father would do”.

“The statement that was issued was true and there were no inaccuracies in the statement," Ms Sanders said.

The comments come after Trump Jr released emails in July showing he eagerly agreed last year to meet a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of Moscow's official support for his father.

The New York Times was first to report the meeting at Trump Tower in New York.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that Mr Trump’s advisers discussed the new disclosure and agreed Mr Trump Jr should be upfront so the account “couldn’t be repudiated later if the full details emerged”.

With AAP.