Axios

Trump's commission on election fraud has told states to hold off on sharing voter data due to legal challenges, per the AP. Some states refused to comply with the request in the first place, as we reported earlier.

New timeline: The original deadline to share data was this Friday, July 14. Trump's commission has until July 17 to respond to a legal challenge from the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington and asked states to hold off until a judge decides the case.

Other legal challenges: The ACLU filed in Washington, Florida, and New Hampshire.

Donald Trump Jr. told CNN in July 2016 that the theory that Russians tried to help Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election and hurt Hillary Clinton was "so phony," "disgusting," and "lie after lie." He said Trump's opposition would "do anything to win."

Just one month before the CNN interview, Trump Jr. was informed before taking a meeting with a "Russian government attorney" was "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." When told the attorney had information that would "incriminate Hillary" Clinton, Trump said "if it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer."

Go deeper: Read the emails.

This weekend's report that Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner attended a meeting at Trump Tower last June with a Kremlin-linked lawyer who promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton was another drip in the ever-expanding Russia story — and it led to Trump Jr. lawyering up for the Russia probe last night.

Looks like he needed it: The story exploded this afternoon when Trump Jr. tweeted the full email chain that led to the meeting, which explicitly called the meeting a "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."

Go deeper: From Rob Goldstone to the Agalarovs, the news surrounding this meeting has introduced a whole host of colorful new characters to the Trump-Russia web, many of whom hadn't been mentioned widely in previous reports.

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted his full email chain with Rob Goldstone that led to his meeting with a Kremlin-linked attorney last June at Trump Tower in an attempt to procure damaging information about Hillary Clinton. The big stuff:

• From Goldstone's initial email: "The Crown prosecutor of Russia…offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia…This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump...I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first."
• Trump Jr.'s response: "…if it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer."
• Why he tweeted this: The New York Times had obtained the email chain — and asked Trump Jr. for comment before publishing this story — causing him to tweet the emails himself.

Go deeper: The cast of characters involved in this incident.

Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's former running mate, told multiple reporters Tuesday that Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian attorney has amplified the Russia investigation to a potential treason investigation: "We're now beyond obstruction of justice in terms of what's being investigated, this is moving into perjury, false statements, and even potentially treason," he said.

Kaine emphasized that he is not on the Senate committees that are investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and stated that his remarks are just an assessment.

The Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort last June said today that someone approached her about the meeting at Trump Tower, not the other way around.

In an exclusive interview with NBC's Keir Simmons, Natalia Veselnitskaya said she received a phone call and was asked whether she had information on the Clinton campaign's finances: "I never knew who else would be attending the meeting, all I knew was that Donald Trump Jr. wanted to meet with me."

Trump Jr. issued a statement Sunday claiming that he met with Veselnitskaya at the request of an acquaintance from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, and said the attorney promised she had damaging information on the DNC.

Other highlights from the interview:

• Why did they think you had intel on the DNC? "It's quite possible they were looking for information. They wanted it so badly," said Veselnitskaya.
• Veselnitskaya denied allegations that she was connected to a Kremlin effort to support Donald Trump's campaign. She also stated that she doesn't, and never has, worked for the Russian government.
• Purpose of meeting: Veselnitskaya said she was lobbying against U.S. sanctions that she considers unfair.

Top West Wing aides acknowledge that the three consecutive days of baffling, brutal disclosures about Donald Trump Jr.'s Russia meeting during the campaign is a story that will stick, with potentially momentous political and legal consequences.

Thought for the day: If The New York Times knows all this, imagine what Bob Mueller knows.

Before meeting a Kremlin-connected lawyer in June of last year, Donald Trump Jr. was told in an email that he would be provided with damaging information on Hillary Clinton as part of a "Russian government effort to aid his father's candidacy," the New York Times reports.

The email came from Rob Goldstone, a publicist and acquaintance of Trump Jr.'s who arranged the meeting. Read more on the cast of characters behind the meeting.

President Trump will officially announce his picks for two ambassadorial posts tonight, an administration source tells Axios.

• Lew Eisenberg, the financier and former Goldman Sachs partner who served as chairman of the Trump Victory Fund, will be the next ambassador to Italy.
• Steve King, a businessman from Paul Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin, will serve as ambassador to the Czech Republic. King has known Ryan and WH Chief of Staff Reince Priebus for years and is a member of the Republican National Committee.

Republican National Committee chair Ronna Romney McDaniel tells Breitbart and Fox News that Congress should delay or cancel their August break until they've repealed and replaced the Affordable Care Act.

"Our voters are depending on them and that's part of why we were elected to lead and we need to get that done."

Why this matters: McDaniel joins a growing chorus of Republicans pushing leadership to work on critical legislation through the August break. David Perdue of Georgia is leading the charge in the Senate. He initiated a letter, co-signed by 9 colleagues, urging McConnell to consider forgoing the summer break so they can finish health care and deal with other urgent priorities like the budget and debt ceiling. Perdue and a number of colleagues will hold a press conference on his tomorrow, a source familiar tells me. Republicans in the House have their own letter and resolution to delay or forego the August break

Critics pounced when Ivanka Trump briefly sat in for her father at the G20 summit in Hamburg, contending that the president's daughter — particularly one who has said she tries to "stay out of politics" — wasn't the right person to represent the U.S. on the world stage.

But while Ivanka's role has been particularly visible, she was far from the first the first child of a president to join his administration.

Per Reuters, Donald Trump Jr. has hired white collar defense lawyer Alan Futerfas to represent him in the government's ongoing Russia probe one day after admitting to meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer who had offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton at Trump Tower last year.

Learn about the major players behind Trump Jr.'s Russia meeting.

Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders dodged questions Monday on whether President Trump accepted Vladimir Putin's denial of Russian election interference, stating instead that Trump heard what Putin had to say, and "decided to move on from that part of the conversation."

Sanders also said that Trump had only learned about his eldest son's June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer "in the last couple of days," and described it as "very short" with "no follow up". She later added that "the only thing inappropriate" about the meeting is "the people who leaked" details, stating firmly that "Don Jr. did not collude with anybody to influence the election." Other highlights from the off-camera briefing:

A New York magazine excerpt of Josh Green's book on Trump and Bannon — "Devil's Bargain," out a week from tomorrow — argues that the White House chief strategist (and CEO of Trump's campaign for the fall) is the reason for Trump's "double-down every time it seems like he should retreat":

The president has weighed in on a new report from The Hill, which cites "officials familiar with the documents" to claim more than half of fired FBI Director Jim Comey's memos contained classified information.

The new story about Trump's inner circle meeting a Russian is damaging because of who was there, when it happened, what they were up to, and the fact that the explanation changed radically over the weekend.

Be smart: Intent will be a crucial consideration in whatever special counsel Bob Mueller comes up with. So the reason for this meeting, the changing story, and the foot-dragging on disclosure are all going to matter. It's why veteran Republicans operatives remain mystified that Trump's orbit is going the drip-drip route rather than disclosing all at once what's known about meetings with Russians.

On Saturday, N.Y. Times had disclosed that the Trump Tower meeting last June with "a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin" had been convened by Don Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, and included son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

A day later, the bombshell: The meeting was not primarily about adoption policy, as Trump Jr. had suggested in a statement. Don Jr. had been "promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton."

The NYT's Maggie Haberman pointed out on Twitter: "This meeting took place at a pivotal moment for Trump, winning Indiana but facing delegate slog prospect."

Under the for-history headline of "TRUMP TEAM MET RUSSIAN OFFERING DIRT ON CLINTON," The Times says: "The accounts of the meeting represent the first public indication that at least some in the campaign were willing to accept Russian help."

• From Don Jr.'s statement: "[T]he woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information."
• Just hours before the new story, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said on "Fox News Sunday" that it was "a nothing meeting": "[I]t was a meeting apparently about Russian adoption."
• Intrigue, tweeted by Axios' Jonathan Swan: "Sources close to Trump are discussing which 'advisers to the White House' [how The Times described sources] might want revenge against Don Jr."

Email du jour, from a top Republican: "[T]ranquilize the president so he does not tweet about it."

A Democratic senator is working on a bill meant to prod the federal government to grapple with the potential impact of artificial intelligence on everything from workers to privacy.

Washington state's Maria Cantwell has circulated draft legislation — which has yet to be introduced and could still be edited — to create a board that would provide advice on a broad range of AI-related topics to the federal government.

Why it matters: As it stands, the U.S. has no policy on the potential threat of robotization to jobs, or even a legal definition of AI. The draft bill falls short of ordering action or formulating policy. But, if it moves all the way to President Donald Trump's desk and is signed into law, it would push the executive branch to begin wrestling with the issues, and could officially define A.I. in a federal law for the first time.