“To be totally transparent,” Donald Trump Jr. released on Twitter his email exchange relating to his June 2016 meeting with Kremlin-linked attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya to reportedly obtain damaging information about Hillary Clinton. The emails basically confirm the New York Times report that Trump Jr. was informed that this campaign dirt came courtesy of “part of a Russian government effort to aid” Trump’s candidacy.
The email, dated June 3, 2016, arrived in Trump Jr.’s inbox from Rob Goldstone, a music publicist who represents Russian pop star Emin Agalarov. Emin Agalarov’s father, Aras, is a wealthy Russian real-estate developer with ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin who worked with Trump to bring the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. In the email, Goldstone tells Trump Jr. he’s contacting him on behalf of Emin with something “very interesting.”
“The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning,” Goldstone writes, “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,” Goldstone adds.
Trump Jr. replied within the hour. “Thanks Rob I appreciate that,” Trump Jr. wrote back. “I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”
Much of the rest of the email chain between Goldstone and Trump Jr. involves an attempt to schedule that call with Emin, and later, a meeting in New York at Trump Tower with the “Russian government attorney” — Veselnitskaya — at the behest of Emin. Once the date is set, Trump Jr. informs Goldstone that Paul Manafort, then campaign chair, and Jared Kushner, his brother-in-law, would “likely” sit in on the meeting.
Trump Jr., in releasing the exchange, said again that Veselnitskaya had “no information to provide” and “wanted to talk about adoption policy and the Magnitsky Act.” He added, “To put this in context, this occurred before the Russian fervor was in vogue.”
