President trump continues to insist that it has no ties to Russia. But his business ties suggest otherwise. Michael Isikoff (Michael Isikoff) from Yahoo News gave to Scott Simon (Scott Simon) interview in which he talked about a deal in real estate. The following is the transcript of their conversation.
Scott Simon, host: Every day we learn new details about the meeting Donald trump Jr. with a Russian lawyer associated with the Kremlin. Version of the White house regarding the meetings is also changing every day — and sometimes every hour. President trump said in an interview with Reuters reporters that he learned about that meeting just a few days ago. It appears that the legal team trump knew about this meeting for more than three weeks. Michael Isikoff writes about this meeting and about the business relations trump with Russia Yahoo News, and today he joined us in our Studio. Michael, thank you for what you came to us.
Michael Isikoff: I am very glad that you invited me.
— If the lawyers try to hide such information from their customers?
— I would not say that in this case it is the point. But this, of course, important and meaningful information. This was the most politically dangerous moment in all this history with the Russian investigation, because in these emails — which originally published the lawyers Jared Kushner (Jared Kushner) provides compelling evidence that the leadership of the election headquarters trump since Donald trump Jr., was informed that the Russian government wanted to help Donald Trump and had dirt on Hillary Clinton that it was ready to share. In letters this is clearly stated. In addition, members of the legal team trump, senior associate mark Kasowitz (Marc Kasowitz) and Alan Garten (Alan Garten), Director of the legal Department of the organization trump was informed about this in the third week of June.
— We continue to report new data about the participants of that meeting — if I hear one more name of her party, I will seriously think about why they held it in Madison Square garden. Tell us about another Russian, about which we know least of all about former officer of the Soviet counterintelligence.
Yes, Rinat Akhmetshin, who is quite famous in certain circles, a man, a lobbyist — he likes to handle journalists and congressional staff and hired help associated with the Kremlin lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, are actively advocating for the repeal of the Magnitsky Act — a law imposing sanctions against representatives of the Kremlin, the perpetrators of human rights violations.
— That is, against many supporters of Mr. Putin, isn’t it?
— Right. The Putin government strongly opposed it. They were furious about the fact that the US government has taken this position. And they responded to this law by the imposition of restrictions on the adoption of Russian children by American families.
— Let me ask you a question about trump’s business dealings in Russia. During the election campaign, the President said that Russia it nothing connects. You wrote about his business dealings. And some of them lead to the contest “Miss universe”.
— Yes, it is. Honestly, I was really struck by the fact that — when I saw the published e-mails — that their author was Rob Goldstone (Rob Goldstone), a former British journalist, who left the world of show business and became a PR of Emin Agalarov. And Emin Agalarov is the son of Aras Agalarov, a Russian billionaire and oligarch, is very closely associated with Vladimir Putin. It is sometimes called Putin’s builders because of the massive construction projects that he implemented on behalf of the Kremlin. And Goldstone in his letters presents it as if Agalarovy are the source of the information that the Russian government wanted to send to Donald Trump.
This is important because Agalarovy were in fact business partners trump in Moscow at the contest “Miss universe”, which they partially sponsored in 2013, and for which they provided the concert hall “Crocus city Hall”. But in the contest they signed a business agreement — a formal agreement of intent to build a “trump tower” in Moscow. I spoke with Rob Goldstone about this a few months ago. He told me that Donald trump Jr. was appointed responsible for the project. And Ivanka trump even flew to Moscow in February 2014 to select potential sites for the construction together with Emin Agalarov.
I hope we will be able to speak. I think…
— At any time.
… that, one way or another, will still be news. Thank you for joining us.
