Washington. — Before meeting with a Russian lawyer, has something to do with the Kremlin and promised to provide the dirt on Hillary Clinton, Donald trump, Jr. received the email with the information that incriminating material is an integral part of the efforts of the Russian government to assist his father in the presidential race. This was reported by three people who know about the son received trump the message.
A letter Trump, Jr., sent a writer and a former reporter for the British tabloids, Rob Goldstone (Goldstone Rob) who helped to organize this meeting in June 2016 meeting. In Sunday’s statement, trump acknowledged that he was interested in getting compromising information on Clinton, however, did not show that he considered the lawyer as a messenger of the Kremlin.
As reported by The New York Times, three sources, the letter Goldstone indicates that the source of such incriminating information is the Russian government. But there are no details about other attempts of Moscow to help the campaign headquarters trump.
There is no indication that the promised incriminating evidence was something to do with hacker attacks of the Russian state, which was published thousands of letters from the correspondence of the National Committee of the Democratic party. Meeting trump Jr. with a Russian lawyer, took place just a few days after the appearance of reports that Russian hackers broke into the servers of the Committee.
However, this letter will certainly cause great interest of the Ministry of justice and congressional investigators who are trying to understand whether there was collusion between trump’s assistants and representatives of the Russian state with the aim of disrupting last year’s elections. American intelligence agencies have concluded that the Russian authorities tried to influence the election in trump’s direction.
The New York Times first reported the June meeting on Saturday, and in the following days there were more holistic picture of what happened.
Lawyer trump, Jr., Alan Futerfas (Alan Futerfas) said his client did nothing wrong, but promised to cooperate with the investigation, if it will contact the investigators.
“In my opinion, is much ADO about nothing. In the busy period Robert Goldstone contacted Donald Jr. via e-mail and told him that there are people with information about alleged offences of favorite Democrats, Hillary Clinton during her contacts with Russia, — said on Monday Futerfas The New York Times via e-mail. — Don Jr. came to the conclusion that someone has information that can help in the course of the campaign, and that it comes from a familiar person. Don Jr. is not known what specific information will be discussed, and whether such a discussion at all.”
It is unclear whether knew Goldstone directly about the origin of the compromising. One person received the information about his letter, said that apparently he was just one of the transfer units of these materials, discrediting Clinton.
At last year’s June meeting in new York was also attended by trump in-law Jared Kushner and the Chairman of his campaign headquarters by Paul Manafort. Representatives Kouchner in response to a request for comment referred to the earlier statement saying that Mr Kouchner voluntarily informed the Federal authorities about the taken place meeting. Answers to questions about the content of that meeting he recommended to Donald trump Jr.
Press Secretary Manafort declined to comment.
But in the conference room of the White house Deputy press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Sarah Huckabee Sanders) indignantly declared from the podium that “the headquarters of the trump is not in any way colluded. Don Jr. didn’t conspire with anyone about influencing elections. None of the headquarters of the trump did not engage in a conspiracy to influence the elections.”
Frequently using the Twitter President on Monday, has not commented on the scandal with his son, and all morning was talking about other issues.
The President’s son said on Twitter that he did what in his place would have done anyone involved with a political campaign: listened to information about his opponent that could discredit him. Trump Jr. argued that his numerous statements on that meeting there are no contradictions.
“Obviously, I am the first person from his office that held a meeting, listened to the information about the opponent… nothing did, but was forced to listen,” he wrote in one tweet. In another he added: “there are No inconsistencies in the statements, the meeting was mainly about adoption. In response to the new questions I have just presented more details”.
Trump Jr., who during the election campaign met with a wide range of people who wanted to talk to him, not working in the administration of his father. He works for the family business at Trump Organization along with his brother Eric.
When reports emerged that trump Jr. hired a lawyer, he tweeted that he was ready to speak to the Senate intelligence Committee, who along with other congressional committees are investigating Russian intervention in elections. “I will be happy to cooperate with the Committee and report what you know,” said the son of trump.
Goldstone is a Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, whose father in 2013 was a business partner of the President of trump at the contest “Miss universe” in Moscow. Giving a Monday interview, Goldstone said Agalarov asked him to arrange a meeting trump Jr. with a Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
“He said: “I was told that she had information about the illegal donations to the campaign headquarters NCDP”,” Goldstone said, referring to the national Committee of the Democratic party. According to him, after that he wrote to Donald Trump, Jr. a letter outlining what supposedly has Veselnitskaya.
However, Goldstone wrote that letter over a year ago, said that he knew nothing about his involvement in the case of the Russian authorities. He said it never crossed his mind. “Never, never, never,” he said. Later, when the contents of the letter learned The New York Times, all attempts to have the Goldstone further comments failed.
In an interview, he said that in his view, Veselnitskaya was just a “private person”, which Agalarov wanted to provide a service. Goldstone noted that it was unaware of the involvement in this case father Agalarov, a Moscow tycoon in real estate Aras Agalarov, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Agalarov Sr. and trump Jr. tried to build a trump Tower in Moscow, however, this project failed.
Goldstone also said that his memory of that meeting is basically identical with that told about her son of the President who made Sunday a statement in connection with the article in The New York Times. According to Goldstone, the last time he wrote to Trump, Jr. after the November election to congratulate him. However, he noted that before the conversation with journalists at the weekend were not contacted or talked to people from the Trump Organization.
Donald trump Jr. initially told The New York Times that Veselnitskaya wanted to talk about the lifting of the ban on adoptions by American families of Russian children. In a Sunday statement, he admitted that one of the themes of the meeting could be compromising information on Clinton. His decision to hold such a meeting was rather unexpected for a political campaign, but it is consistent with the haphazard approach trump to the race, during which his people met with anyone.
However, trump Jr. said that a lawyer from Russia did not give anything substantial, and that the meeting ended when she took the conversation about the Magnitsky Act, which created the black list of Russians suspected of human rights violations. This passed in 2012 the law is so angered Putin that he forbade Americans to adopt Russian children.
According to Goldstone, Veselnitskaya “is very vague and in General terms, spoke about campaign Finance and what people, including those living in different countries Russian, contribute funds to the account of staff of the Clinton, though do not do this”. After this, she moved to the arguments against the Magnitsky Act.
“It was the most pointless crap I have ever heard, said Goldstone. — I must say that it caused me irritation. Why I devoted so much time, which I did not have enough of this stuff?”
Veselnitskaya, for its part, denied that during the conversation the question was raised about the campaign and about the dirt on Clinton. According to her, she did not act in the name and on behalf of the Russian authorities. Putin’s spokesman said on Monday that he did not know Veselnitskaya, and that he knew nothing about the June 2016 meeting.
Sanders said at a press conference that the American President recently learned about that meeting, but to discuss details, she refused.
But the press service of the White house accused team Clinton of hypocrisy. She spread published in January 2017 in a Politico article that detailed how officials from the Ukrainian government tried to help the democratic candidate in the study of the actions of trump and some of his assistants.
News about the meeting with trump, Jr., Kouchner and Manafort overshadowed the good feeling, which arose from the visit of the President and his team to Europe, where he participated in the economic summit of “Big twenty”.
The President has become aware that in 2016 the meeting from her sources at the end of the visit, as reported by an official from the White house. However, some people in the White house knew about it for several days, because Kushner has revised its statement about contacts with foreigners and included a message about the conversation with Veselnitskaya.
The President was upset with the news about this meeting, as reported close to him. But he’s not unhappy with the very fact of the meeting, and to a greater extent the fact that there was another news about Russia, eclipsed all else.
