Rob Goldstone, the British music publicist who set up a meeting in June 2016 between Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-linked lawyer, sent emails later in the summer to another Russian who attended the meeting, and one of President Donald Trump’s aides, CNN reported on Thursday.
CNN reported, citing multiple unnamed sources, that Goldstone emailed Dan Scavino, who was director of social media for Trump’s campaign and now fills the same position in the White House.
According to the report, Goldstone also emailed Emin Agalarov, a Russian pop star and his client, and Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze, who was accused of having a pivotal role in a large-scale alleged scheme to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in Russian money through U.S. banks in the 1990s. Kaveladze attended the meeting in Trump Tower between Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya.
In one email, according to the report, Goldstone urged Scavino to have Trump create a page on VK, a Russian-based social media website, and told him that “Don and Paul” supported the idea, referring to Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort, then Trump’s campaign chair. There is no indication Scavino or Trump acted on Goldstone’s suggestion.
In another email, according to the report, Goldstone sent Agalarov and Kaveladze a CNN story about Russian hacking of emails from the Democratic National Committee. According to CNN, Goldstone described the development as “eerily weird” in light of the Trump Tower meeting, which took place five days earlier.
Kaveladze’s lawyer told CNN that hacking did not come up during the meeting, and was not relevant to the subjects that were discussed. The White House and Goldstone’s lawyer declined to comment to CNN.
When Trump Jr. posted his email exchange with Goldstone on Twitter in July, CNN reported, citing two unnamed sources with knowledge of the message, that Kaveladze’s son George Kaveladze emailed his father asking why Trump, Jr. was admitting to “collusion.”
Congressional investigators found the emails and brought them up at Trump Jr.’s testimony on Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee, according to CNN, though none of the messages were sent directly to him. Trump Jr. said he did not recall the exchanges, CNN reported, citing several unnamed sources.
In September, Trump Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he, Goldstone and Agalarov “never discussed the meeting again.”
What this article strongly hints at is that, contrary to the assertions of Junior, Kushner (and Manafort?), there were follow-up discussions and maybe actual follow-up that resulted from that meeting.
That puts Junior and Kushner in a false statement trap. I find it hard to believe that either of those 3 didn’t tell Trump about that meeting (as he was on the same floor and made a veiled reference to it in a speech that night). It’s also likely that Goldstone communicated with Junior again after that meeting, as the fact that Goldstone emailed Scavino directly indicates that Goldstone had achieved a broader acceptance into the Trump circle, but Junior was a primary contact or friend.
That Goldstone also referenced the DNC hack and ‘surprise’ (calling it ‘eerily weird’) could mean different things. The Russians may have held back what they had in that meeting, but took note of Trump’s response that they could proceed ahead. We don’t know if there was IC evidence for the 6/9 meeting, but we do know that both Page and Papadopoulos were surveilled in real time. The Papadopolous and Page threads may also connect to the DNC hack. At some point the Russians brought all of these threads into one decisional database and elected to move forward with a highly aggressive campaign to subvert the election.
The IC seems to be planting a few kernels here and there as has been the case throughout 2017. I expect there will be more.
That is a lovely hat Mr. Goldstone’s wearing. He seems nice.*
I can handle the occasional pic of Manafort, or even of Bannon, but puhleeze do not thrust an image of this cretin in my face, ever again.
Here’s my bottom line take away: The conspiracy between Trump and Russia will never go away.
Ever.
Pity the poor Thai hustlers making a living servicing this freak.