So Let’s Get this Straight
So let’s get this straight. After a week of “rolling revelations” from the Trump family, we finally have a sense of what went on leading up to the meeting June 16th, 2016 in Trump Tower. Here’s the cast of characters (reads like the first chapter of War and Peace.) Links for more information are at the end of the article.
Donald Trump Jr – eldest son of then Presidential candidate Donald Trump and a chief advisor to his father and the campaign.
Rob Goldstone – publicist for Russin/Azerbaijani Pop Star Emin Agalarov. Acquainted with Trump Jr since the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow, which the Trumps owned.
Emin Agalarov – Russian-Azerbaijani Pop Star. Performed at the Miss Universe Pageant and has had continued his relationship with the Trumps. President Trump appeared in one of his pop videos.
Aras Agalarov –Azerbaijani-Russian construction billionaire, and close friend of Vladmir Putin. Agalarov not only has sponsored his son’s performing career, but also is a prime candidate for Trump construction deals in Russia. Trump Junior and Senior both know him from the Miss Universe pageant.
Natalia Veselnitskaya – Russian attorney, and lobbyist in the United States against the Magnitsky Act. The Magnitsky Act is a series of US sanctions against individual Russians accused of committing “human rights abuses,” which included the death of Sergei Magnitsky in Russian prison. Putin hates the Magnitsky Act. She also was an attorney in the Prevezon case, where the Russian company that benefited from Magnitsky’s death laundered hundreds of millions of dollars through New York real estate. The Justice Department just settled the case for a $6 million penalty.
Rinat Akhmetshin – Dual American/Russian citizen, who served as a counter intelligence officer in Russian Army Intelligence before immigrating to the US. Akhmertshin is known as a “fixer” in Washington, an expert on finding negative information about companies or people. Akhmetshin has bragged about his ability to find emails that have been hacked.
Paul Manafort – Manager for the Trump campaign in the late spring and summer of 2016. Manafort also has documented connections with the Russian government, including political work in Ukraine to elect a pro-Russian president. Manafort ultimately left the Trump campaign when his foreign dealings were revealed.
Jared Kushner – Husband of Ivanka Trump, and a leading advisor to then candidate, now President Trump. Kushner also was deeply involved in real estate in New York City.
Yuri Chaika – Prosecutor-General of Russia. A close Putin ally (and law school classmate) met with Veselnitskaya (according to her) before she came to New York for the meetings with Trump Jr.
So here’s the story.
Goldstone sent an email to Donald Trump Jr. In the email he requested to set up a meeting with Trump Jr and a “representative of the Russian Government” (Veselnitskaya) having negative information about Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. Trump Jr’s reply: “I love it.”
Currently known to be in the meeting were: Trump Jr, Manafort, Kushner, Goldstone, Veselnitskaya, and Akhmetshin. At the writing of this, there are rumors of two more participants, perhaps Emir Agalarov and another member of the Trump family. Those are unconfirmed rumors.
Trump Jr states the meeting was less than thirty minutes. He claims that the discussion was not about Clinton and the DNC, but concentrated on the Magnitsky Act and Russia’s retaliation by banning US parents from adopting from Russia. Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin have stated that a folder was given to Trump Jr, but the Trumps have not acknowledged that.
So what’s the take on this so far? I’m not addicted to too many television shows, but one that keeps me completely occupied is NCIS. The lead character, Gibbs, has a series of rules to live by. His Rule 39: there is no such thing as a coincidence.
The leaders of the Trump Campaign met with a Russian lawyer known for her connections to the Russian government. With her was a US/Russian citizen known for his abilities to run negative campaigns and get hacked emails. It seems unreasonable that this was all a cover to talk about the Magnitsky Act.
So that’s where things stand today, at least this morning. As this story has gone, I’m sure it will be completely different this afternoon!!!
On a different note; Vice President Pence fired the first shot of the 2020 Presidential primaries last week, calling out Ohio Governor John Kasich on Medicaid in front of the National Governor’s conference. A detailed look at the information shows that Pence got it wrong – but that wasn’t the point anyway. Let the games begin!!!
CNN – overview of Trump Meeting
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/15/politics/russia-donald-trump-jr-meeting/index.htm
Natalia Veselnitskaya
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/07/natalia-veselnitskaya-trump-junior/533670/
Rinat Akhmetshin
Magnitsky Act
http://www.npr.org/2017/07/14/537247838/what-really-irritates-vladimir-putin-the-magnitsky-act
Prevezon Case
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-was-russian-money-laundering-case-dismissed-house-dems-2017-7
Yuri Chaika
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/07/russian-crown-prosecutor/533295/
Gibbs Rules
Brilliantly written & researched, as always.
so proud of what you are doing.