Donald Trump Jr. just did an e mail dump in hopes that he it would enable him to get out in front of the downhill snowball he unleashed when he met with a Russian lawyer who offered him dirt on Hillary Clinton. But one e-mail in particular may damn him. If it’s not the smoking gun, then it’s the first whiff of smoke. And you know what they say about smoke…where there’s smoke…
A bit of context: as the story about the meeting Jared Kushner, Don Jr. and Paul Manafort with Natalia Veselnitskaya has grown day by day in scandalous proportions since the NY Times first reported it last weekend, Junior Trump decided he ought to get everything out there and then spin it to his advantage. So far, he’s tried claiming the lawyer didn’t offer the dirt on Hillary she promised. Then he tried saying she really wanted to talk about Russian baby adoptions and the Magnitsky Act.
But now we read this e-mail sent by Rob Goldstone, a music agent associated with a Russian pop singer with exceedingly close ties to Putin. In it, Goldstone holds out the tantalizing prospect of information about Hillary Clinton offered to him directly from the Russian government’s “Crown Prosecutor” [sic]. The e-mail also makes crystal clear that the government is actively supporting the Trump candidacy. But here is the money quote:
“The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras [father of the pop singer] 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. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump — helped along by Aras and Emin. What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly? I can also send this info to your father via [longtime Trump executive assistant Rhona Graff], but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.”
In other words, Goldstone told Don Jr. that he could offer this information directly to the candidate, Donald Trump himself. This is the first time we’ve drawn close to Trump in this entire scandal. This means that Goldstone might have followed through on his offer and sent it to Trump. Even if he didn’t, it makes it much more likely that Don Jr. did tell dad about the offer. In fact, it beggars belief that he didn’t. You can hear in Don Jr.’s enthusiasm for the lawyer’s offer that this is no humdrum development. Given the way that family works it’s well-nigh impossible they would’ve maintained any sort of compartmentalization of such information as any intelligent campaign would. Sonny would’ve gone directly to dad to inform him of the goose that appeared to be laying a golden egg for the family.
So we have the president himself, for the first time, tantalizingly close to directly associated with this scandal. We’re down from six degrees of separation to two degrees. How long before we’re down to one degree? One thing is for sure, this ain’t over. But the fat lady definitely is getting ready to sing. We do know where it will end. The only question is when we’ll get there and how long it will take.
Perhaps the understatement of the day or year is Trump Jr’s response in an interview today: “In hindsight, I’d have done things a little differently.” Gee, d’ya think??
The NY Times, which was about to publish Trump’s e mails before he decided to do it himself, published this interesting hint as to who may’ve leaked them:
The emails were discovered in recent weeks by Mr. Kushner’s legal team as it reviewed documents, and the team amended his clearance forms to disclose it, according to people briefed on the developments, who like others declined to be identified because of the sensitive political and legal issues involved.
Did Jamie Gorelick, Kushner’s lawyer, give the Times the e mails? Or did she transfer them to someone else to leak them to the paper? If so, it indicates at least one very big rat is either preparing to abandon a sinking ship or at least peering over the side to judge where to land after he jumps.
Mr. Silverstein, I’m confused.
Transparency being the watchword, Trump Jr. publicly released the entire email chain on Twitter.
The initial email states that the “Crown prosecutor of Russia” offered to provide the Trump campaign with “information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia.”
The information Trump Jr. initially expressed interest in receiving was not hacked emails or illegally obtained documents but apparently information about Clinton’s official Secretary of State dealings with Russia.
When this information was offered on to Trump Jr. on June 3, 2016, there was nothing to suggest that Russian hackers were responsible for the hacking of the DNC.
Donald Trump Jr., in other words, had no reason to believe that the information he sought was little more than opposition research.
Soooo where’s the conspiracy? Where’s even collusion?
@ Anya:
Transparency? Are you daft? The NY Times had the goods on him and were about to publish them. He pre-empted the attack by publishing them first in a vain attempt to mitigate the damage. A fat lot of good it did him. He’s boiling in a pot of hot water right about now. So No, there’s no transparency here. He was desperately trying to save his goose.
It doesn’t matter what Trump Jr thought he would be getting in the meeting. Nor did Goldstone who wrote that e mail necessarily know or understand what the RUssians planned to tell Trump Jr. during the mtg. Goldstone is a hack gossip columnist, not a political operative. It doesn’t matter what he thought or wrote. What matters is both what actually happened in the meeting & what the Russians actually did afterward. Most of us know what happened in the meeting. And I’m virtually certain Kushner or someone is going to turn on the others & spill the beans to save his neck. Then we’ll know, if not by other means. Finally, the proof of the pudding is what the Russians later did. They had damning intelligence on Hillary and they leaked it & they won Trump the election. That’s it in a nutshell. So you can fumfer all you like about not understanding this. But it’s plain and simple to anyone with eyes in their head (apparently yours are somewhere in the back of yours).
Mr. Silverstein,
I don’t see why your insulting me. Can’t we have a polite discourse? You know, the ‘high road’.
The Kremlin’s hacking activities were illegal, and can’t be condoned. That said, what’s the big deal with Russia dishing dirt on Hillary’s questionable Russia dealings? After all, didn’t the Ukrainian government try the same thing and aide the Clinton campaign by dishing (faked) dirt on The Donald?
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446
@ Anya: If you deserved the high road you’d get it. But someone who has an ax to grind in proving that Islam hates Jews as you do doesn’t deserve the high ground.
The Russians will do what they do. They’re (Putin & his cronies, that is) stinking low lifes. The problem for Trump is how he & his cabal reacted to the Russian offer. For a U.S. president to collude & conspire with the Russian government to throw an election is way beyond illegal. I predict it will end a number of these idiots in prison. No professional presidential campaign would’ve had anything to do with the Russian lawyer. And certainly not in the fashion Trump did by meeting directly with her in Trump’s own office building.
And no, the Ukrainian matter was entirely different. The government didn’t officially offer dirt to Clinton directly as Russia did. A private Ukrainian citizen offered information information to another U.S. citizen about actual corrupt practices by Paul Manafort. Russia didn’t offer evidence of anything illegal done by Clinton or her campaign manager. It actually stole her & the DNC e mails, which itself is a federal crime.
And the Ukrainians offered nothing about Trump. It concerned Carter Page & Manafort.
If you want to echo Trump talking points as you have, can’t you at least get the basics of the claims correct? I hate having to correct information you should know yourself before using it. And if you don’t know, don’t say.
I never implied, much less said, that ‘Islam hates Jews’.
Instead of insulting me, and instead of making flimsy accusations against me, you should bolster your arguments.
@ Anya: So your attempt to argue that the Jews of Hebron faced centuries of rape, persecution, hate, & violence was meant to reassure us that Muslims really love Jews?? Or were you arguing that Muslims don’t hate all Jews, just the Jews of Hebron?
This portion of the scandal probably only convinces the convinced anti-Trumpers who see Trump as the embodiment of all evil anyway.
Most pro-Trump, and trump-neutral republicans wouldn’t have a problem with the candidate sourcing negative information on the Democratic candidate from whomever – even if that includes Russia.
Ask yourself the converse question – say Iran had negative information on Trump (sex tape, money issues, whatever) and gave it over to Hillary – would you have a problem with Hillary using it? I don’t think so.
As long as it is the Democrats doing the shouting – Trump is safe. He will be in trouble once a sizeable portion of the Republican party is out for his head – which would be the difference between Bill Clinton (his party stood by him in the impeachment) and Nixon (who lost most of his own party (elected and public) and recognized he would be impeached).
@ lepxii: Once again you Israelis prove you have no understanding of either American politics or the American legal system. First, Trump has a 35% approval rating, which means the vast majority of the country disapproves of him…that is, the “convinced anti-Trumpers” you seem to deride as a a pitiful minority. Second, it doesn’t matter what those who are pro-Trump believe: if Trump and his coterie committed crimes in arranging & participating in these meetings & then attempting to conceal them, then they’ve committed numerous crimes. And if any one of them lies about them under oath they’ll be liable for perjury on top of that.
In Israel, everyone lies, whether in court or in Knesset, so perjury has little significance legally. Here it is entirely different.
You’ve completely misunderstood the issue. What the RUssians did is committed a federal crime. They hacked & stole e mails. Then they gave them indirectly to Trump after telling him that they would do so & that they were doing so to enable him to win the election. Very few governments would be stupid enough to do this: not even Israel. But Putin is a psychopath much like Trump & was willing to do this.
So NO, Iran would never stoop to the stupidity of the Russians. Further, they can’t afford to since one camp supports American liberals and the other supports U.S. neocon/GOP. Neither side could afford to help their U.S. friends win an election because the other Iranian party would expose it & scream bloody murder.
That is beginning to happen. And once the GOP is drubbed in the 2018 midterms the rest will flood the exits. Both NY Times GOP columnists have denounced Trump. Admittedly, they are GOP moderates. The hard core hasn’t jumped ship yet. But it will happen.
British citizen Rob Goldstone in key role
Rob Goldstone is an agent for Emin Agalarov who was married to Leyla Aliyeva — social activist and elder daughter of the Azerbaijani President.
The Russian lawyer/lobbyist Natalia Veselnitskaya is not well known and has an obscure office in a southern suburb Ul. Lazareva Admirala of Moscow. She made headlines when she was hired by Denis Katsyv to lead his defence in Manhattan trial for money laundering of Prevezon Holdings Ltd. linked to the Magnitsky case. On May 12, 2017, US Attorney Joon Kim settled out of court, a ‘sweet’ deal some would say:
The U.S. agreed to take $5.9 million to settle a money-laundering lawsuit tied to a $230 million Russian tax fraud, avoiding a trial that was set to begin mid May.
Veselnitskaya hired Fusion to do investigative work and Fusion shared her lobbying effort in the States to get rid of the sanctions enforced on Katsyv by the Magnitsky Act of Congress.
The meeting with Trump Jr. took place on June 9, 2016.
Fusion GPS signed a contract with the British Orbis Business Intelligence group of Chris Steel, and Sir Andrew Wood. Orbis leadership worked as MI6 spies in the British Embassy in Moscow during the 90s.
Orbis worked for Fusion from June until early November 2016.
Fusion had already worked for Republican candidate Rubio who was supported by Paul Singer. There was an ‘opposition’ dossier on candidate Trump build up during the primaries. Fusion has financial links with Clinton supporters.
Katsyv was part of the $230 million tax scam to defraud the Russian government/taxpayer.
The Katsyv family’s involvement in the laundering of money from Russia into Israeli banks reflects the use of weak international channels, and exposes the route of official money being sent abroad from Russia. Peter Katsyv and his son Denis Katsyv were charged in Israel in 2005 with laundering money through their Martash Investment accounts in the Israeli Hapoalim Bank. Petr Katsyv, who was the Russian Deputy Minister of Transportation, allegedly laundered, through the company and its bank accounts, 250 million Israeli shekels (about $64 million) that he skimmed off from the Russian government. Hapoalim Bank allowed for the money to be transferred, and according Sam Vaknin, there is evidence that Israel has turned a blind eye to the origin of money transferred from South Africa and Russia.
Katsyv ended up settling, and Martash Investment signed an agreement with the Israeli government in order to not be indicted for money laundering. In this agreement they were ordered to pay 35 million shekels (about $8 million). The settlement reflects the overall fear from the Katsyv family of an investigation, which could have led to the source of the money.
Summarizing:
British citizen Rob Goldstone is linked to Russian Emin Agalarov and via Leyla Aliyeva to the Azerbaijani President.
Rob Goldstone was used to arrange a meeting between Russian lawyer/lobbyist Natalia Veselnitskaya and the Trump campaign.
Veselnitskaya did not deliver any goods about Clinton as reported so far, and from my viewpoint, the meeting does not in any way proof “collusion” between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Veselnitskaya is directly linked to Glenn Simpson, partner in Fusion GPS of Washington DC, an organization that worked for Republicans, Democrats and a Russian mobster.
Fusion GPS is directly responsible and linked to British intelligence through former MI6 agents who worked in a spy nest in Moscow. I refer to their set of 16 “intelligence” documents simply as a “Dodgy Dossier” and so typically British.
Orbis is facing a lawsuit for libel. From the court proceedings Chris Steele has stated that the dossier was handed by Sir Andrew Woods to Mr. Kramer, assistant to Senator John McCain. Later Orbis gave an additional December memorandum to Fusion which was handed in hard copy to McCain and a senior UK government national security official.
The arranged meeting could just as well have been an entrapment by a Federal agency or IC. Trump has long been suspect of being too close to Moscow/Kremlin. Still I really have no idea what is going on!
@ Oui: Are you quoting from an online source? Or summarizing? IF so, could you give a link…
A Gordian Knot unraveling …. never believe words coming from a spook!
It’s my own summary based on a number of recent diaries I posted. Link is in my handle Oui
Final word today: “Why Akhmetshin and Fusion GPS Should Be Investigate”
PS The Israeli court action was quoted from an EU report on money laundering.
Title: “The Threat of Russian Criminal Money: Reassessing EU Anti-Money Laundering Policy”
Update!
Former Soviet GRU officer at meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer| NBC News – July 14, 2017 |
The lobbyist, identified as Rinat Akhmetshin, denies any current ties to Russian spy agencies. He accompanied the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law; and Paul Manafort, former chairman of the Trump campaign. Born in Russia, Akhmetshin served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.