Email suggests Russia was working to boost the Trump campaign in 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr.

In preparing to meet with a Kremlin-linked attorney during the 2016 US presidential campaign, Donald Trump Jr. was reportedly told that damaging information he was expecting to receive about Hillary Clinton was part of a Russian effort to help then-candidate Donald Trump's campaign.

A report from The New York Times on Monday night cited three people who had knowledge of the email, which was allegedly sent by Rob Goldstone, a music publicist who represents the son of a wealthy Azerbaijani-Russian developer and is friendly with the Trump family.

The three people with knowledge of the email who were cited by The Times told the newspaper Goldstone's message indicated that Russia was the source of the damaging information.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that Donald Trump Jr. met with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, last year, weeks after his father clinched the Republican presidential nomination. Trump was joined at the meeting by Jared Kushner, his brother-in-law, and by Paul Manafort, who was the campaign manager at the time.

Veselnitskaya has strong ties to the Kremlin. She was married to a former deputy transportation minister of the Moscow region, and her clients have included Russian state-owned businesses.

In a statement issued to The Times on Saturday, Trump said it was a "short introductory" meeting that focused on an adoption program Russian President Vladimir Putin had cut off as a retaliatory measure against the Magnitsky Act, which blacklisted Russians suspected of human-rights abuses. He made no mention of Clinton.

Trump Jr. has since hired an attorney to represent him Russia-related investigations. The probes have been ongoing in both houses of Congress and at the FBI, where special counsel Robert Mueller has been overseeing the expansive inquiry into Russia's interference in the election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

Sonam Sheth contributed reporting.