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At 11 am, Donald Trump Jr. released copies on Twitter of his June 2016 email exchange with Rob Goldstone, a publicist who was trying to set up a meeting with a Russian lawyer who wanted to talk to Trump Jr. about potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
Within minutes of Trump Jr.’s Twitter release — by 11:08 am — the stock market began to tumble. Half an hour later, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 154 points.
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The panic on Wall Street signals that investors are worried that Trump Jr.’s emails are pretty damaging for the administration — and for its business-friendly congressional agenda.
In the emails, Goldstone says that the lawyer that wanted to meet with Trump Jr. works for the Russian government. The exchange is damaging is because the emails strongly suggest the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to sway the outcome of the presidential election. It’s not yet clear what the fallout from the revelation will be. But Wall Street clearly thinks whatever happens next doesn’t bode well for the administration, or for its plans for tax reform.