{"id":34362,"date":"2017-07-12T04:57:09","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T04:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=34362"},"modified":"2017-07-12T04:57:09","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T04:57:09","slug":"russian-dirt-on-clinton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/russian-dirt-on-clinton.html","title":{"rendered":"Russian Dirt on Clinton? ‘I Love It,’ Donald Trump Jr. Said"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian Dirt on Clinton? ‘I Love It,’ Donald Trump Jr. Said<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The June 3, 2016, email sent to Donald Trump Jr. could hardly have been more explicit: One of his father\u2019s former Russian business partners had been contacted by a senior Russian government official and was offering to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton.<\/span><\/p>\n

The documents \u201cwould incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,\u201d read the email, written by a trusted intermediary, who added, \u201cThis is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government\u2019s support for Mr. Trump.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If the future president\u2019s eldest son was surprised or disturbed by the provenance of the promised material \u2014 or the notion that it was part of a continuing effort by the Russian government to aid his father\u2019s campaign \u2014 he gave no indication.<\/span><\/p>\n

He replied within minutes: \u201cIf it\u2019s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Four days later, after a flurry of emails, the intermediary wrote back, proposing a meeting in New York on Thursday with a \u201cRussian government attorney.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Donald Trump Jr. agreed, adding that he would most likely bring along \u201cPaul Manafort (campaign boss)\u201d and \u201cmy brother-in-law,\u201d Jared Kushner, now one of the president\u2019s closest White House advisers.<\/span><\/p>\n

On June 9, the Russian lawyer was sitting in the younger Mr. Trump\u2019s office on the 25th floor of Trump Tower, just one level below the office of the future president.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past several days, The New York Times has disclosed the existence of the meeting, whom it involved and what it was about. The story has unfolded as The Times has been able to confirm details of the meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the email exchanges, which were reviewed by The Times, offer a detailed unspooling of how the meeting with the Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, came about \u2014 and just how eager Donald Trump Jr. was to accept what he was explicitly told was the Russian government\u2019s help.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Justice Department and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are examining whether any of President Trump\u2019s associates colluded with the Russian government to disrupt last year\u2019s election. American intelligence agencies have determined that the Russian government tried to sway the election in favor of Mr. Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

The precise nature of the promised damaging information about Mrs. Clinton is unclear, and there is no evidence to suggest that it was related to Russian-government computer hacking that led to the release of thousands of Democratic National Committee emails. But in recent days, accounts by some of the central organizers of the meeting, including Donald Trump Jr., have evolved or have been contradicted by the written email records.<\/span><\/p>\n

After being told that The Times was about to publish the content of the emails, instead of responding to a request for comment, Donald Trump Jr. posted images of them on Tuesday on Twitter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo everyone, in order to be totally transparent, I am releasing the entire email chain of my emails\u201d about the June 9 meeting, he wrote. \u201cI first wanted to just have a phone call but when that didn\u2019t work out, they said the woman would be in New York and asked if I would meet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He added that nothing came of it. But in an interview on Tuesday with Fox News\u2019s Sean Hannity, he said that \u201cin retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At a White House briefing earlier Tuesday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy press secretary, referred questions about the meeting to Donald Trump Jr.\u2019s counsel, but read a statement from the president in which he called his son \u201ca high-quality person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The back story to the June 9 meeting involves an eclectic cast of characters the Trump family knew from its business dealings in Moscow.<\/span><\/p>\n

The initial email outreach came from Rob Goldstone, a British-born former tabloid reporter and entertainment publicist who first met the future president when the Trump Organization was trying to do business in Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the June 3 email, Mr. Goldstone told Donald Trump Jr. that he was writing on behalf of a mutual friend, one of Russia\u2019s biggest pop music stars, Emin Agalarov. Emin, who professionally uses his first name only, is the son of Aras Agalarov, a real estate tycoon sometimes called the \u201cDonald Trump of Russia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The elder Mr. Agalarov boasts close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia: His company has won several large state building contracts, and Mr. Putin awarded him the Order of Honor of the Russian Federation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Agalarov joined with the elder Mr. Trump to bring the Miss Universe contest to Moscow in 2013, and the Trump and Agalarov families grew relatively close.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Emin released a music video with a theme borrowed from the television show \u201cThe Apprentice,\u201d Mr. Trump, then the show\u2019s star, made a cameo appearance, delivering his trademark line: \u201cYou\u2019re fired!\u201d The elder Mr. Agalarov had also partnered with the Trumps to build a Trump hotel in Moscow, but the deal never came to fruition.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEmin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting,\u201d Mr. Goldstone wrote in the email. \u201cThe Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWhat do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There is no such title as crown prosecutor in Russia \u2014 the Crown Prosecution Service is a British term \u2014 but the equivalent in Russia is the prosecutor general of Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

That office is held by Yury Yakovlevich Chaika, a Putin appointee who is known to be close to Ms. Veselnitskaya.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arranging a Meeting<\/span><\/p>\n

After sending back his reply of \u201cI love it especially later in the summer\u201d \u2014 when voters\u2019 attention would be heightened by the approaching election \u2014 Donald Trump Jr. arranged to speak with Emin, sending along his private cellphone number on June 6.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOk he\u2019s on stage in Moscow but should be off within 20 Minutes so I\u2019m sure can call,\u201d Mr. Goldstone wrote at 3:43 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within the hour, Donald Trump Jr. had responded: \u201cRob thanks for the help. D.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The next day, Mr. Goldstone followed up: \u201cDon Hope all is well Emin asked that I schedule a meeting with you and The Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow for this Thursday. I believe you are aware of this meeting \u2014 and so wondered if 3pm or later on Thursday works for you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Goldstone\u2019s emails contradict statements he made in his interview with The Times on Monday, when he said that he did not know whether the elder Mr. Agalarov had any role in arranging the meeting, and that he had no knowledge of any official Russian government role in the offer to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Mrs. Clinton. Instead, he said that Ms. Veselnitskaya had contacted Emin directly, and that Emin had asked him to reach out to the Trumps as a favor to her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI actually asked him at one point how he knew her, and he said, \u2018I can\u2019t remember but, you know, I know thousands of people,\u2019\u201d he said in the interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

Subsequent efforts to reach Mr. Goldstone, who acknowledged in the interview that he had spoken with someone at the Trump Organization over the weekend in anticipation of news media attention, have been unsuccessful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Goldstone, in a June 7 follow-up email, wrote, \u201cI will send the names of the two people meeting with you for security when I have them later today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

By that time, as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Mr. Trump was already under the protection of the Secret Service and access to Trump Tower in New York was strictly controlled. Ms. Veselnitskaya told The Times that the person who accompanied her was an interpreter whom she declined to name.<\/span><\/p>\n

After being informed that the Russian lawyer could not make the 3 p.m. time that had been proposed, and agreeing to move it by an hour, Donald Trump Jr. forwarded the entire email chain to Mr. Kushner\u2019s company work email, and to Mr. Manafort at his Trump campaign email.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMeeting got moved to 4 tomorrow at my offices,\u201d he wrote on June 8. \u201cBest, Don.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Kushner recently disclosed the fact of the meeting, though not the content, in a revised form on which all those seeking top secret security clearances are required to list contacts with foreign government officials and their representatives. The Times reported in April that he had failed to list his foreign contacts, including with several Russians; his lawyer has called those omissions an error.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Manafort also disclosed that a meeting had occurred, and that Donald Trump Jr. had organized it, in response to one of the Russia-related congressional investigations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Representatives for both men did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Veselnitskaya arrived the next day and was ushered into Donald Trump Jr.\u2019s office for a meeting with what amounted to the Trump campaign\u2019s brain trust.<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides having politically connected clients, one of whom was under investigation by federal prosecutors at the time of the meeting, Ms. Veselnitskaya is well known for her lobbying efforts against the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law that punishes designated Russian human rights abusers by allowing the United States to seize their assets and keep them from entering the country. The law so angered Mr. Putin that he retaliated by barring American families from adopting Russian children. Her activities and associations have brought her to the attention of the F.B.I., according to a former senior law enforcement official.<\/span><\/p>\n

When first contacted by The Times on Saturday, Donald Trump Jr. portrayed the meeting this way: \u201cIt was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow-up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Responding to Queries<\/span><\/p>\n

The next day, after The Times informed him that it was preparing an article that would say that the meeting also involved a discussion about potentially compromising material on Mrs. Clinton, he issued another statement: \u201cI was asked to have a meeting by an acquaintance I knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant with an individual who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign. I was not told her name prior to the meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to attend, but told them nothing of the substance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cAfter pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. 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. She then changed subjects and began discussing the adoption of Russian children and mentioned the Magnitsky Act. It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Goldstone recalled the meeting in much the same way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Veselnitskaya offered \u201cjust a vague, generic statement about the campaign\u2019s funding and how people, including Russian people, living all over the world donate when they shouldn\u2019t donate\u201d before turning to her anti-Magnitsky Act arguments, he said. \u201cIt was the most inane nonsense I\u2019ve ever heard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Veselnitskaya, for her part, said in an statement to The Times sent this past weekend that \u201cnothing at all about the presidential campaign\u201d had been discussed at the Trump Tower meeting, adding that she had \u201cnever acted on behalf of the Russian government\u201d and that she had \u201cnever discussed any of these matters with any representative of the Russian government.\u201d She has not responded to requests for comment since.<\/span><\/p>\n

A spokesman for Mr. Putin said on Monday that he did not know Ms. Veselnitskaya and that he had no knowledge of the June 2016 meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in Washington, both the White House and a spokesman for President Trump\u2019s lawyer have taken pains to distance the president from the meeting, saying that he did he not attend it and that he learned about it only recently, a point Donald Trump Jr. reiterated Tuesday in his interview on Fox News. He also said he would testify under oath in any of the investigations into possible collusion between Russia and his father\u2019s campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Agalarov did not respond to a request for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Emin, the pop star at the center of it all, will not comment on the matter, either, Mr. Goldstone, his publicist, said on Monday. \u201cEmin said to me that I could tell journalists that, you know, he has decided to go with just a straight no comment,\u201d Mr. Goldstone said. \u201cHis reasoning for that is simply that he believes that by him commenting in any way from Russia, it once again will open this debate of Trump, Trump, Russia. Now here\u2019s another person from Russia. Now he\u2019s another person from Russia. So he wants to just not comment on the story. That\u2019s his reasoning. It\u2019s \u2014 the story will play out however it plays out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/07\/11\/us\/politics\/trump-russia-email-clinton.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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