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Donald Trump Jr.'s emails reference meeting the crown prosecutor of Russia - here's what that is

Veronika Bondarenko   

Donald Trump Jr.'s emails reference meeting the crown prosecutor of Russia - here's what that is
Politics2 min read
yuri chaika rossuan prosecutor general

AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel

Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika speaks to the media during their meeting in Moscow, Russia on May 7, 2015.

Donald Trump Jr's emails about his meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya reference "the crown prosecutor of Russia," a position that does not exist in the country.

Donald Trump Jr. released Tuesday what he claims to be the full text of his emails with music publicist Rob Goldstone, who arranged his meeting with a Russian lawyer to allegedly receive damaging information on then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Gladstone works for Emin Aglarov, a Russian pop star whose family has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In one email, Goldstone tells Trump Jr. that "the crown prosecutor of Russia" met with the elder Aglarov and "offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father."

There's only one problem - there is no such thing as a "crown prosecutor" in Russia.

Goldstone may have been referring to the office of the prosecutor general, who heads Russia's judiciary system and is the highest ranking official in that government branch. Russia's prosecutor general is responsible for overseeing the country's court and legal system and supervising all the highest branches of the law.

The title is currently filled by Yury Yakovlevich Chaika, appointed to the role by Putin in 2006. Chaika has ties to Veselnitskaya and is a very high-level official in the Russian government, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

"This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump," Goldstone wrote in the email.

The United Kingdom has an official with a similar name to the crown prosecutor, the Crown Prosecution Service, which is headed by the attorney general. State prosecutors in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth states are typically referred to as crown prosecutors.

Goldstone is originally from Manchester, England, which may explain why he referred to the "crown prosecutor of Russia."

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