The Russian Connection

[fraurosena]

Seth Abramson is on fire with his mega-threads with the latest info. Here's one he's just posted today.

 

[Childless]

I admit that I'm in the "I hope the GOP blocks impeachment" camp.  Trump is a lazy idiot who can't control himself.  He's been in office for nearly six months now and hasn't gotten jack shit done.  Six months with party control of all three branches.  It's rather pathetic.  He does a good job of sabotaging himself.  I'd rather have an ineffective, embarrassing moron as president than a clever, slimy politician who will destroy the country like he destroyed my state.  Sure, Pence may go down with Trump, but look who's in line next.  As you go down the line of succession, it just gets worse and worse.  As sad as it is to say, at this point, Trump is our best option.  He's also pretty unpopular, so it may be easier to mount a challenge in 2020 against him than against Pence or Ryan and his unpopularity may help us flip some seats in 2018.

[fraurosena]

Seth Abramson digging up more info in a three-tweet thread, this time on possible motivation. 

 

[nvmbr02]

2 hours ago, Childless said:

I admit that I'm in the "I hope the GOP blocks impeachment" camp.  Trump is a lazy idiot who can't control himself.  He's been in office for nearly six months now and hasn't gotten jack shit done.  Six months with party control of all three branches.  It's rather pathetic.  He does a good job of sabotaging himself.  I'd rather have an ineffective, embarrassing moron as president than a clever, slimy politician who will destroy the country like he destroyed my state.  Sure, Pence may go down with Trump, but look who's in line next.  As you go down the line of succession, it just gets worse and worse.  As sad as it is to say, at this point, Trump is our best option.  He's also pretty unpopular, so it may be easier to mount a challenge in 2020 against him than against Pence or Ryan and his unpopularity may help us flip some seats in 2018.

I've had this thought too. It is likely that Pence would appoint a VP as soon as he took over, so there may be someone else in front of Ryan in it comes to that but I have zero faith in Mike Pence to appoint anyone that isn't a slimeball. And I think Mike Pence is as dirty as they come. There is no way he didn't know about this. He may not have actively participated at the start but I sure hope they can pin the cover up on him. 

[formergothardite]

Crazy Trump is sadly the best option out of all of them. They all have to go down together if he goes down. None of them can be left standing. 

[mamallama]

I agree.  I think the opposition have done a bad job of identifying this as a GOP problem.  I think at some point the GOP will ditch Trump and pretend it never happened.  They'll then go on with their fucked up agenda.

[fraurosena]

Holy moly! 

This is explosive! There is no way to spin this when evidence is found.

[GrumpyGran]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Holy moly! 

This is explosive! There is no way to spin this when evidence is found.

Now we're getting closer to the truth. I watched the coverage of the election very closely. Kellyanne would pop up here and there and her demeanor was always "We think we have a chance, I mean, it's possible, ya know?" Then suddenly one day a week or so before the election she showed up on something I was watching and it was "We're going to win, take my word for it" with a smug look on her face. Something happened.

And Ivanka, put a sweater on, you're defrauding those Secret Service agents!

[fraurosena]

You don't even have to connect the dots.

The Trump-Russia Conspiracy Is Now Very Simple

Spoiler

Here’s a point missing in much of the coverage of Donald Trump Jr.’s bombshell emails: If they are an accurate depiction of events, these messages show there was a conspiracy between the Putin regime and the Trump camp that was exceedingly simple and compact and quite easy to implement. The apparent plot—yes, it was a secret plot—involved a small number of people: three of Donald Trump’s closest advisers, a Trump business partner (and that man’s son), a Russian official close to Vladimir Putin, and two emissaries. Actually, none of this is surprising. Or complicated. You do not need Agent Mulder to get to the bottom of this.

Let’s start with Aras Agalarov. He is a billionaire developer in Russia in favor with Vladimir Putin, who in 2013 awarded him the Order of Honor for his construction work in Russia. Agalarov is also a business partner of Donald Trump. In 2013, he signed up with Trump to bring to Moscow the Miss Universe contest, which Trump co-owned at the time. That deal was brokered by Emin Agalarov, Aras’s son and a middling pop star, and Emin’s manager, a Brit named Rob Goldstone. 

For years, Trump had tried to do hotel and condo projects in Moscow. All these endeavors had failed or fizzled. (Trump Vodka had flopped, too.) The Miss Universe event was his only successful venture there. It was good for the Agalarovs. The contest was held in Crocus City Hall, part of a large shopping and exhibition complex they own on the outskirts of Moscow, and they were able to raise their profile and promote their ritzy theater there. Emin, as part of the deal, got to perform two songs before a global audience, which he and Goldstone hoped would boost his career.

The event made at least $12 million for Trump’s Miss Universe Organization. Even better for Trump, the pageant forged a tight bond between him and Aras and Emin Agalarov. Trump appeared in a music video Emin released. The Trump Organization and the Agalarovs started working on a deal to bring a Trump tower to Moscow. In fact, as Yahoo News reports, Ivanka Trump traveled to Moscow shortly after the event to scout locations. Here is a photo Goldstone posted on his Facebook page of Ivanka meeting with Emin there:

And in the following years, there was steady contact between the Trumps and the Agalarovs—and Goldstone, too. Though no Moscow project materialized, there remained a relationship. 

Come the campaign of 2016, it was no surprise that Emin and Aras Agalarov were pulling for their pal Donald. And it’s only natural they wanted to help. 

According to emails released Tuesday by Trump Jr., on June 3, 2016—shortly after Trump had secured the Republican presidential nomination—Aras was in a meeting with Yury Chaika, the prosecutor general of Russia, who had been in the post since 2006. A few weeks earlier, Putin had recommended that Chaika serve another five-year term. Certainly, only a Putin-fancied official would be in this job. But this was a sign that Chaika remained in Putin’s good graces. (The previous year, a prominent Russian opposition activist had accused Chaika’s family of being involved in corruption and criminal activity.)

The Trump Jr. emails do not note how the meeting between Chaika and Aras Agalarov came about. But according to an email sent from Goldstone to Trump Jr., Chaika told Agalarov he could provide the Trump campaign “with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary” and that would be “very useful” for Donald Trump. This contact makes plenty of sense. If the Russian government wanted to help Trump win the presidency by passing his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, the natural go-between would be Aras Agalarov, who had been Trump’s business colleague. Agalarov could go straight to the source.

And apparently he did. According to the Trump Jr. emails, Aras Agalarov made the obvious play. He had Emin ask Goldstone to contact Trump Jr. Emin’s manager then emailed Donald Trump Jr. and told him about the Agalarov-Chaika meeting and added, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but it is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped along by Aras and Emin.”

Nothing complex here. A Putin official seems to be collaborating with Trump’s business partners to get Trump negative material on Clinton.

Next, Trump Jr. seems to have a phone call with Emin, and a meeting is scheduled for a few days later in Trump tower where Trump Jr. will meet with what one email describes as a “Russian government attorney.”

Trump Jr. then widens the cabal by informing Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort about this operation, and they are added to the meeting. An email forwarded to them about the get-together has the subject heading: “Russia – Clinton – private and confidential.” On June 9, the meeting occurs.

It only took three days for this plot to zip from the discussion between Chaika and Aras Agalarov to the inner circle of Trump’s campaign. Trump Jr. says nothing came out of the conversation between the Trump advisers and the Russian lawyer, claiming she spoke only in vague and meaningless terms. But given that the president’s son has repeatedly dissembled about this episode, there is no telling if this description can be trusted. (The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, has denied working on behalf of the Russian government or conveying negative information about Clinton.)

This is what ought to register: The scheme appears to have been put into play by a Putin regime official and a Putin-friendly oligarch who was Trump’s business partner in Russia—and Trump’s son, son-in-law, and campaign manager all joined in. (A pop singer, a Russian lawyer, and a talent manager all had supporting roles.) Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort were looking to collude with a foreign power to gain an advantage in the election—an allegation the Trump team has repeatedly and passionately denied.

This is not Alex Jones stuff. This was straightforward conniving. Moreover, this is reality within the part of the universe where Trumpland overlaps with Putin’s world. It was a conspiracy, pure and simple. The obvious question now is: Are there any others to uncover?

 

[WiseGirl]

NBC news tonight video from 2013 (I think they said 2013)  with Trump at a Russian party with many of the key players in all this......I'm sure there will be a link somewhere....

[GreyhoundFan]

@WiseGirl -- CNN has the video. It's posted here.

Spoiler

Washington (CNN)Video obtained exclusively by CNN offers a new look inside the web of relationships now at the center of allegations of collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia.

The video shows the future President Donald Trump attending a dinner with an Azerbaijani-Russian family who became Trump's business partners in Las Vegas in June 2013. It also shows their publicist, Rob Goldstone, who would later send Donald Trump Jr. the emails that have brought the eldest Trump son to the center of the controversy over possible collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia.

Goldstone, who is also seen in the video talking with Trump, claimed in the 2016 emails that damaging information against Hillary Clinton surfaced after a meeting between someone Goldstone described as "the Crown prosecutor of Russia" and Aras Agalarov, an Azerbaijani-Russian billionaire with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Goldstone then offered to set up a call between the younger Trump and Emin Agalarov, the billionaire's son and a pop star Goldstone represents, to discuss the information.

The video, obtained by CNN in the wake of the email disclosures, offers fresh insights into the warm relationship between Trump and the Agalarovs, which has been widely reported because Aras Agalarov and Emin Agalarov inked a multi-million dollar deal with Trump to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013.

The video was shot on June 15, 2013 in Las Vegas on the eve of the Miss USA pageant where Trump would officially announce the deal to bring the Miss Universe contest to Moscow. The footage, a series of clips from the eve of the Miss USA pageant, documents more than three minutes of interactions between Trump, the Agalarovs and Goldstone.

Donald Trump Jr. does not appear in the video obtained by CNN, but several other top Trump associates do -- including Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and his long-time aide and current director of Oval Office operations, Keith Schiller, who are both in the video.

The clips show Trump engaged in animated conversation with the Agalarov men and Goldstone.

During dinner, Trump is seated across from Aras Agalarov and beside Emin Agalarov -- who in turn is seated next to Goldstone. At one point in the clip, Trump and Goldstone engage in a brief conversation while the younger Agalarov leans into the table.

Another clip shows a conversation between Trump and the Agalarovs before the dinner, where Emin Agalarov introduces Trump to his mother and sister -- prompting the future US president to remark on their looks.

"Whoa, look at this! Now I'm glad we're going to dinner," Trump says after meeting the mother and sister. "What a beautiful mother you have! Well, you produce good looking stuff, right? Beautiful stuff."

In one conversation captured on the video, Trump discusses how he came to own the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, noting that the previous owners "didn't know what they were doing," prompting laughter from the Agalarovs.

"Miss Universe now is, in the whole world, because you know it's, like the Super Bowl is a watched, but outside the United States, nobody watches it, it's one of the largest, I think top three broadcasts in the world," Trump says, prompting Emin Agalarov to suggest that only the Olympics earn more viewership.

The next day, Trump lavishes praise on the Agalarovs at the Miss USA 2013 red carpet, calling them "the most powerful people in all of Russia."

"These are the most powerful people in all of Russia, the richest men in Russia," Trump says during the public red carpet ceremony, which was included in the clips obtained by CNN.

In another clip from the Miss USA pageant that year, Trump discusses the forthcoming Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. He lavishes praise on Russia and says he hopes the pageant will help improve the US-Russia relationship.

"It really is a great country. It's a very powerful country that we have a relationship with, but I would say not a great relationship, and I would say this can certainly help that relationship. I think it's very important," Trump says in response to a question.

"I have great respect for Russia. And to have the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, in the most important location, the most beautiful building, in your convention center, with such amazing partners, I mean it's going to be fantastic for detente, or whatever you want to say," Trump continues. "I think it's a great thing for both countries, and honestly they really wanted it in Russia -- badly. ... Politically they wanted it."

Donald Trump Jr. has said that his relationship with Goldstone did not arise from the Miss Universe pageant.

The younger Trump instead suggested in an interview Tuesday with Fox News' Sean Hannity, an ardent Trump supporter, that he met Goldstone through a golf course tournament where Emin Agalarov performed.

"I met him through the golf course. I wasn't even at the Miss Universe pageant, but I met him through out there, so I had a casual relationship with him," Trump Jr. told Hannity, describing Goldstone later in the interview as "an acquaintance."

Trump Jr. maintained in the interview that he agreed to the meeting "as a courtesy" to Goldstone.

Trump Jr. said he had only met Emin Agalarov "once or twice and maintained a casual relationship there, talked about some potential deals, and then to that -- the extent of it. They really didn't go anywhere."

Aras Agalarov told Russian radio station BFM that he doesn't know Trump Jr. personally, though he acknowledges that they "did Miss Universe" together. But Agalarov told BFM that his son Emin Agalarov does know him. Agalarov told BFM he "doesn't really know" publicist Rob Goldstone either and he says the notion that Goldstone asked Trump Jr. to contact him about some dirt on Hillary Clinton is a "tall tale".

Scott Balber, an attorney for the Agalarovs, also did not deny the closeness of the relationship between the Trumps and Agalarovs, instead raising a question about Goldstone's credibility.

"It's simply fiction that this was some effort to create a conduit for information from the Russian federal prosecutors to the Trump campaign," Balber said on CNN's "New Day." "It's just fantasy world because the reality is if there was something important that Mr. Agalarov wanted to communicate to the Trump campaign, I suspect he could have called Mr. Trump directly as opposed to having his son's pop music publicist be the intermediary."

 

[fraurosena]

Here's a very interesting article written by a former CIA intelligence officer and a professor of Law at the NYU.

The Media Is Not Asking the Right Questions on Trump Jr. Emails and Meeting with the “Russian Government Lawyer”

Spoiler

The media is, in large part, missing the point when it comes to the news about Donald Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Vesilnitskaya and should be steering instead to raising the right questions. It is difficult to conceive of a scenario in which a private citizen in Russia has access to derogatory information on a U.S. presidential candidate. The act of offering such information was likely, at minimum, a trial balloon, and at best (from Moscow’s perspective), a chance to pass certain information from an agent of the Russian government to the Trump campaign through the candidate’s campaign manager and son, thereby also implicating Donald J. Trump himself. This raises the most important questions: what did she offer in that meeting? How did Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort respond?

Vesilnitskaya may have had her own agenda in requesting a meeting with Trump. That part could be legitimate. But Russian intelligence practice is to co-opt such a person by arming them with secret intelligence information and tasking them to pass it to Trump’s people and get their reaction. Did Trump’s associates like it? Do they want more? Did they report it to U.S. authorities?  The key point is that essentially no Russian citizen or lawyer has compromising material on Hillary Clinton which has not been supplied to them from Russian intelligence. The simple assertion that she had such information is tantamount to declaring that Vesilnitskaya was acting as agent of Russian government in this particular role. Couple that with the specific text of the email messages (PDF full text) sent to Donald Trump Jr. to set up the meeting which described the material as coming from the Russian government. All the alarm bells should have been going off in Trump Tower when they received an email offering to provide “very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and it’s government’s support for Mr. Trump.” A later email refers to the “Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow.” Donald Trump Jr.’s response: he would include Manafort and Kushner in the meeting.

In sum, Vesilnitskaya’s advocacy of other causes is irrelevant to her mission on behalf of the Russian government. Based on what we now know, this interaction had all the hallmarks of an overture by Russian intelligence to the campaign, and it is utterly damning that Trump Jr. took the meeting, brought in Manafort and Kushner to the meeting, and none of them reported the events immediately to the FBI nor to U.S. authorities until very recently.

The chronology of related events is also important. In this brief space, let’s identify just a few of these. First, by the time of the meeting, Russian intelligence had stolen large volumes of data from the DNC. The U.S. intelligence report puts the date at which they had that information in their possession at May 2016. It is not until after the meeting, later in June, that the website DC Leaks, which was used by Russian intelligence agencies, began releasing Clinton campaign documents. In July, Carter Page took his trip to Moscow, and in late July the candidate himself sent a strong signal — calling on Russia to find and release Clinton’s emails. The open and notorious statement could, of course, be a way of conveying in no uncertain terms that the person with whom Russian officials had no direct contact–the candidate himself–was on board with the efforts to assist the campaign. Let’s make the easy assumption that Trump Jr. informed his father of the highly significant meeting in June. Waiting a few days until after he officially secured the Republican nomination at the Republican convention, candidate Trump then openly invited Russian assistance and election interference.

There is more, of course, that can be said about these connections, and presumably much more information already at the disposal of congressional and FBI investigators. Recall, for example, that the bombshell Washington Post report about Michael Flynn’s late December phone call with the Russian Ambassador also reported that the two men had a “series of contacts … that began before the Nov. 8 election.” And recall that Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, boasted right after the election that the Russian government maintained contacts with members of Trump’s “immediate entourage” during the U.S. presidential campaign and “a number of them maintained contacts with Russian representatives.”

Let’s now return to that fateful meeting with the Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016. After that point, the responsible thing to do on the part of the campaign would have been to report the encounter to U.S. authorities and to steer clear of further Russian contacts. The Trump campaign appears to have done something quite the opposite. Why? And what did the Russian intelligence learn from the steps that Trump and his campaign associates took?

(I have italizised and changed text color where the article itself has bolded the text to differentiate from my own bolding and underlining)

[fraurosena]

The conservative media is trying to spin this onto Hillary (duh). This NYT article fact checks and debunks them.

Stories of Foreign Election Influence, Separate and Not Equal

Spoiler

Following the revelation that Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer connected with the Russian government, defenders of the president’s eldest son have offered a familiar argument: Hillary Clinton’s actions were more egregious.

President Trump alluded to these comparisons in a Twitter post on Wednesday morning: “Why aren’t the same standards placed on the Democrats. Look what Hillary Clinton may have gotten away with. Disgraceful!”

But the same standards don’t apply to the cases surfaced by Mr. Trump’s supporters, experts agreed. Here is an assessment.

Sean Hannity distorted the Chinese ambassador’s request to meet with Clinton campaign officials.

“Is this Hillary Collusion?” Mr. Hannity, the Fox News host, asked in a tweet on Tuesday linking to a WikiLeaks post from February of an email thread between Clinton campaign officials and supporters regarding a meeting with the Chinese ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai.

Mr. Cui “wants to have an informal, private, off-the-record get-together with a few of us to discuss the next year and the current state of U.S.-China affairs,” Kurt Campbell, the former assistant secretary of state for East Asia under President Barack Obama, wrote to John D. Podesta, the Clinton campaign chairman, and others in January 2016.

The replies do not indicate whether the get-together ever took place, though a meeting to discuss foreign policy is common, former diplomats said.

J. Stapleton Roy, a career Foreign Service officer who served as ambassador to Singapore, China and Indonesia, said he had engaged in such activities, staying in touch with opposition leaders during the rule of President Suharto of Indonesia and, after Suharto stepped down, multiple parties during open elections. Husain Haqqani, then Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, met with both the Obama and the McCain campaigns during the 2008 election.

An email that led to the meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer, on the other hand, offered to provide damaging information on Mrs. Clinton, characterized as “part of Russia and its government’s support” for his father. The younger Trump replied, “I love it.” Both Mr. Roy and Mr. Haqqani said this was not normal or appropriate.

Mr. Hannity’s comparison is also misleading from a legal standpoint. Though the law prohibits accepting things of value from foreign sources in connection with federal elections, meeting with foreign diplomats is not illegal.

Unlike Mr. Trump’s emails, the Clinton campaign email does not prove that a foreign entity was offering things of value to the campaign for the purposes of the affecting the election, said Stephen Vladeck, a professor of law at the University of Texas.

Bill Mitchell, a conservative radio host, claimed the ‘Hillary Ukraine Story’ was ‘far worse.’

In a tweet on Tuesday, Mr. Mitchell was referring to a January report in Politico that detailed how Mrs. Clinton’s allies coordinated with Ukrainian officials to research damaging information on the president and his advisers, including Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Mr. Trump’s campaign.

According to the report, Alexandra Chalupa, a consultant for the Democratic National Committee from 2004 to 2016, worked to expose ties between Mr. Manafort and Russia with help from officials at the Ukrainian Embassy. She told Politico that she shared her findings with the D.N.C. and journalists during the 2016 election.

Ukraine’s involvement is a more comparable example than the Chinese ambassador’s request, but it goes only so far. The “Hillary Ukraine Story” still differs from the younger Trump’s actions in several ways.

Mr. Trump’s meeting also involved two other top Trump aides: Mr. Manafort and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. There is no indication that their peers in the Clinton campaign were involved with Ms. Chalupa’s efforts or coordinated with the Ukrainian Embassy.

“Donald Trump Jr. went to his meeting with the understanding that he was going to meet a Russian government lawyer with information designed to help his father,” said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. “The Clintons were far more sophisticated in the use of surrogates and shields to protect the candidates. This was truly amateur hour at Trump Tower.”

Nor did the relevant people like Ms. Chalupa “evade and lie about it like the Trump people did with their meeting,” said Benjamin Friedman, a research fellow in defense and homeland security at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Mr. Trump’s son himself called allegations that Russia was helping the Trump campaign “phony” and “disgusting” on July 26, 2016, a month after he met with the Russian lawyer.

While Mr. Manafort stepped down from the Trump campaign in part because of the research on his ties to Russia, Ukraine’s efforts were “far less concerted or centrally directed than Russia’s alleged hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails,” Politico reported. Intelligence officials have characterized Russia’s interference as unprecedented in scale.

And Ms. Chalupa’s work does not appear “to have been part of a larger pattern of cooperation, as with Trump-Russia, or to involve a U.S. promise or offer of sanctions relief in exchange for help,” Mr. Friedman said.

Even if what they are saying about Hillary were true, it still does not exhonerate Fredo in any way, shape or form. Saying somebody else did it too, or did it worse, does not absolve you of culpability from the things you do. 

It's like a murderer, caught red-handed standing with a bloody knife above his victims body, saying:

"But Ted Bundy was far worse, he killed more people than me."  

[fraurosena]

Raging Rufus!

Seth Abramson has a new mega-thread, showing that the(n candidate) presidunce met with a Kremlin agent in 2016 and maybe even in recent months.

To summarize briefly: Abramson has a very good and legally based argument that Emin Aglarov is an agent (in the legal sense) for the Russian government, and that the presidunce was informed of this at least three times since 2013. Any contact he had with Emin during the campaign and after has all kinds of legal consequences.

[fraurosena]

And here is a CBS article, stating that Russian officials discussed election as early as mid-2015.

Quote

Electronic intercepts picked up Russian officials discussing the 2016 U.S. presidential election -- and how they could influence it -- as early as mid-2015, a former U.S. official familiar with the intelligence told CBS News Wednesday.

Hillary Clinton's name came up often in chatter, as Russians believed she would be the Democratic presidential nominee. Now-President Trump's name also surfaced in 2015, the former official said. His name came up in the context of him being a potential presidential candidate and that they knew Mr. Trump and as well as Trump associates. 

The former official said that in the spring of 2016, the Russian conversation pivoted to helping the Trump campaign.

The development comes after Mr. Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., released an email chain in which he welcomed a promise of information said to be damaging to Clinton. 

"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," publicist Rob Goldstone wrote on June 3, 2016, at 10:36 a.m. The email continues, "I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first."

Shortly after that at 10:53 a.m., the eldest Trump son responded, "Thanks Rob I appreciate that. 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. Could we do a call first thing next week when I am back?" 

The White House and Mr. Trump have defended Trump Jr.'s decision to take a June 9 meeting that Goldstone arranged with a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

"I think many people would have held that meeting," Mr. Trump told Reuters in an interview Wednesday. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied any interference in the 2016 election, a matter the president said he raised in their meeting at the G-20 in Hamburg, Germany, last week.

The Senate and House intelligence committees, along with the FBI, are investigating Russian election meddling, as well as any ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. 

 

[GrumpyGran]

15 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

@WiseGirl -- CNN has the video. It's posted here.

  Reveal hidden contents

Washington (CNN)Video obtained exclusively by CNN offers a new look inside the web of relationships now at the center of allegations of collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia.

The video shows the future President Donald Trump attending a dinner with an Azerbaijani-Russian family who became Trump's business partners in Las Vegas in June 2013. It also shows their publicist, Rob Goldstone, who would later send Donald Trump Jr. the emails that have brought the eldest Trump son to the center of the controversy over possible collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia.

Goldstone, who is also seen in the video talking with Trump, claimed in the 2016 emails that damaging information against Hillary Clinton surfaced after a meeting between someone Goldstone described as "the Crown prosecutor of Russia" and Aras Agalarov, an Azerbaijani-Russian billionaire with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Goldstone then offered to set up a call between the younger Trump and Emin Agalarov, the billionaire's son and a pop star Goldstone represents, to discuss the information.

The video, obtained by CNN in the wake of the email disclosures, offers fresh insights into the warm relationship between Trump and the Agalarovs, which has been widely reported because Aras Agalarov and Emin Agalarov inked a multi-million dollar deal with Trump to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013.

The video was shot on June 15, 2013 in Las Vegas on the eve of the Miss USA pageant where Trump would officially announce the deal to bring the Miss Universe contest to Moscow. The footage, a series of clips from the eve of the Miss USA pageant, documents more than three minutes of interactions between Trump, the Agalarovs and Goldstone.

Donald Trump Jr. does not appear in the video obtained by CNN, but several other top Trump associates do -- including Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and his long-time aide and current director of Oval Office operations, Keith Schiller, who are both in the video.

The clips show Trump engaged in animated conversation with the Agalarov men and Goldstone.

During dinner, Trump is seated across from Aras Agalarov and beside Emin Agalarov -- who in turn is seated next to Goldstone. At one point in the clip, Trump and Goldstone engage in a brief conversation while the younger Agalarov leans into the table.

Another clip shows a conversation between Trump and the Agalarovs before the dinner, where Emin Agalarov introduces Trump to his mother and sister -- prompting the future US president to remark on their looks.

"Whoa, look at this! Now I'm glad we're going to dinner," Trump says after meeting the mother and sister. "What a beautiful mother you have! Well, you produce good looking stuff, right? Beautiful stuff."

In one conversation captured on the video, Trump discusses how he came to own the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, noting that the previous owners "didn't know what they were doing," prompting laughter from the Agalarovs.

"Miss Universe now is, in the whole world, because you know it's, like the Super Bowl is a watched, but outside the United States, nobody watches it, it's one of the largest, I think top three broadcasts in the world," Trump says, prompting Emin Agalarov to suggest that only the Olympics earn more viewership.

The next day, Trump lavishes praise on the Agalarovs at the Miss USA 2013 red carpet, calling them "the most powerful people in all of Russia."

"These are the most powerful people in all of Russia, the richest men in Russia," Trump says during the public red carpet ceremony, which was included in the clips obtained by CNN.

In another clip from the Miss USA pageant that year, Trump discusses the forthcoming Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. He lavishes praise on Russia and says he hopes the pageant will help improve the US-Russia relationship.

"It really is a great country. It's a very powerful country that we have a relationship with, but I would say not a great relationship, and I would say this can certainly help that relationship. I think it's very important," Trump says in response to a question.

"I have great respect for Russia. And to have the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, in the most important location, the most beautiful building, in your convention center, with such amazing partners, I mean it's going to be fantastic for detente, or whatever you want to say," Trump continues. "I think it's a great thing for both countries, and honestly they really wanted it in Russia -- badly. ... Politically they wanted it."

Donald Trump Jr. has said that his relationship with Goldstone did not arise from the Miss Universe pageant.

The younger Trump instead suggested in an interview Tuesday with Fox News' Sean Hannity, an ardent Trump supporter, that he met Goldstone through a golf course tournament where Emin Agalarov performed.

"I met him through the golf course. I wasn't even at the Miss Universe pageant, but I met him through out there, so I had a casual relationship with him," Trump Jr. told Hannity, describing Goldstone later in the interview as "an acquaintance."

Trump Jr. maintained in the interview that he agreed to the meeting "as a courtesy" to Goldstone.

Trump Jr. said he had only met Emin Agalarov "once or twice and maintained a casual relationship there, talked about some potential deals, and then to that -- the extent of it. They really didn't go anywhere."

Aras Agalarov told Russian radio station BFM that he doesn't know Trump Jr. personally, though he acknowledges that they "did Miss Universe" together. But Agalarov told BFM that his son Emin Agalarov does know him. Agalarov told BFM he "doesn't really know" publicist Rob Goldstone either and he says the notion that Goldstone asked Trump Jr. to contact him about some dirt on Hillary Clinton is a "tall tale".

Scott Balber, an attorney for the Agalarovs, also did not deny the closeness of the relationship between the Trumps and Agalarovs, instead raising a question about Goldstone's credibility.

"It's simply fiction that this was some effort to create a conduit for information from the Russian federal prosecutors to the Trump campaign," Balber said on CNN's "New Day." "It's just fantasy world because the reality is if there was something important that Mr. Agalarov wanted to communicate to the Trump campaign, I suspect he could have called Mr. Trump directly as opposed to having his son's pop music publicist be the intermediary."

 

Just commenting on the article here alone. Wow, he really wanted to get his foot in the door there, didn't he? I believe at that point he saw it as a big money opportunity, but apparently it didn't pan out to the extent that he thought it would. But it seems even then he knew there might be some questions about the appropriateness of this, hence the talk of how it would improve relations with Russia.

Really hard to believe he hasn't been in it up to his neck for years now. Because to believe some of his recent comments about his relationship with Russia, you would need...nope, there's no way, not with his words there. We know him now and when he uses that many adverbs and adjectives, he's totally in love. 

[fraurosena]

MSNBC's Chris Hayes has a wonderful analysis in this twitter thread of what the Drumpfs want everyone to believe... And how very unbelievable it truly is.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"This is why Russia wanted to help Trump"

Spoiler

AFTER WE learned that Donald Trump Jr. said he would “love” to receive campaign help from the Russian government, it was pointed out that Russia is a hostile power. This is true, but what does it mean? It’s worth revisiting the question, because the answer has a lot to do with what Russian President Vladi­mir Putin stood to gain by interfering in the United States’ 2016 presidential election.

“Hostile,” in this case, doesn’t mean that Russia and the United States are about to go to war. In theory, their interests shouldn’t even diverge all that much. They are two continental powers on opposite sides of the world with no territorial disputes (though the melting of Arctic ice may change that). They share a fear of Islamist terrorism.

What makes Russia hostile is Mr. Putin’s adherence to, and dependence on, a set of values that are antithetical to what have been, at least until now, bedrock American values. He favors spheres of influence over self-determination; corruption over transparency; and repression over democracy. His antipathy toward Hillary Clinton was not personality-driven but based on her advocacy of values that would threaten his rule.

It’s sometimes hard for Americans to understand the gulf between the two nations because Mr. Putin has maintained the trappings of democracy — a parliament, national elections — even as he has made them meaningless by shuttering most independent media and eliminating most political opposition. The state now serves Mr. Putin and his cronies, who have become immensely wealthy, rather than the reverse. When people try to expose the corruption, they are imprisoned or killed (or both, as in the case of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky). When Mr. Putin stakes out any position, the first question on his mind is not “Is this good for Russia?” but rather: “Will this help my regime to survive?”

Ukraine, which like Russia was part of the Soviet Union, provides a useful example. This is a country the size of France that lies between Russia and the rest of Europe. When it started to move in a more democratic direction, Mr. Putin felt threatened on two counts. First, a democratic Ukraine would not be as open to plunder as one ruled by oligarchs; second, if a democratic Ukraine prospered, it might give ordinary Russians dangerous ideas. Ms. Clinton, as secretary of state and after, supported Ukraine’s democratic aspirations. Mr. Putin invaded the country, seized part of its territory and initiated an ugly civil war that helps keep Ukraine from prospering.

It may be true that Mr. Putin’s hacking and fake-news campaign began as an effort simply to damage Ms. Clinton’s reputation on her road to the White House or to make the democratic process look as ugly as possible. But along the way, Mr. Putin must have realized that Donald Trump’s policies aligned with his values more than he could have dared expect from any American candidate. Mr. Trump disparaged democratic allies and alliances while expressing admiration for dictators. He appeared willing to mingle private business with public duties in unprecedented ways, while elevating family members in the style of a Central Asian caesar. At home, he echoed Mr. Putin in his cynical disparagement of a free press, his celebration of violence at his rallies, and his ugliness toward Muslims, Mexicans and others he perceived or portrayed as outsiders.

So while the younger Mr. Trump may have seen advantage in accepting Russia’s help, Russia certainly would have seen an advantage in proffering it. Mr. Putin’s values are antithetical to American values, but the Russian dictator had good reason to hope that they would not be antithetical to the values of a Trump administration.

Food for thought.

[fraurosena]

The plot thickens...

Russian Lawyer Brought Ex-Soviet Counter Intelligence Officer to Trump Team Meeting

Spoiler

The Russian lawyer who met with the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist — a former Soviet counter intelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News has learned.

NBC News is not naming the lobbyist, who 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 and Paul Manafort.

The Russian-born American lobbyist served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.

Veselnitskaya acknowledged to NBC News that she was accompanied by at least one other man, though she declined to identify him.

The presence at the meeting of a Russian-American with suspected intelligence ties is likely to be of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate panels investigating the Russian election interference campaign.

Contacted by NBC News, representatives for Kushner and Manafort declined to comment. A lawyer for Trump Jr. did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Veselnitskaya, in an exclusive interview with NBC News, denied having any connection to the Kremlin and insisted the meeting was to discuss sanctions, not the presidential campaign.

The meeting was arranged between Trump Jr. and music publicist Rob Goldstone, who has ties to Russia. In an email exchange released by Trump Jr., the president's eldest son wrote "I love it" when told about possibly getting his hands on material potentially damaging to the Clinton campaign.

Goldstone told Trump Jr. that the meeting would be with a "Russian government attorney" and that the information was "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." Trump Jr. responded enthusiastically, "If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer."

Trump Jr. said after releasing the emails that, "in retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently."

President Trump has defended his son's decision to meet with Veselnitskaya, saying "most people would have taken that meeting."

"My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer but a Russian lawyer," Trump said Thursday in a joint press conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron. "From a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research or research into your opponent." 

 

[GrumpyGran]

4 hours ago, fraurosena said:

The plot thickens...

Russian Lawyer Brought Ex-Soviet Counter Intelligence Officer to Trump Team Meeting

  Hide contents

The Russian lawyer who met with the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist — a former Soviet counter intelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News has learned.

NBC News is not naming the lobbyist, who 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 and Paul Manafort.

The Russian-born American lobbyist served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.

Veselnitskaya acknowledged to NBC News that she was accompanied by at least one other man, though she declined to identify him.

The presence at the meeting of a Russian-American with suspected intelligence ties is likely to be of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate panels investigating the Russian election interference campaign.

Contacted by NBC News, representatives for Kushner and Manafort declined to comment. A lawyer for Trump Jr. did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Veselnitskaya, in an exclusive interview with NBC News, denied having any connection to the Kremlin and insisted the meeting was to discuss sanctions, not the presidential campaign.

The meeting was arranged between Trump Jr. and music publicist Rob Goldstone, who has ties to Russia. In an email exchange released by Trump Jr., the president's eldest son wrote "I love it" when told about possibly getting his hands on material potentially damaging to the Clinton campaign.

Goldstone told Trump Jr. that the meeting would be with a "Russian government attorney" and that the information was "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." Trump Jr. responded enthusiastically, "If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer."

Trump Jr. said after releasing the emails that, "in retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently."

President Trump has defended his son's decision to meet with Veselnitskaya, saying "most people would have taken that meeting."

"My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer but a Russian lawyer," Trump said Thursday in a joint press conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron. "From a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research or research into your opponent." 

 

I want to know who this lobbyist is. Am I the only one? Russian-born, was in the Soviet military, now lobbying who? For what?

[GreyhoundFan]

"Another shoe drops in the White House’s burgeoning Russia scandal"

Spoiler

Donald Trump Jr. and the White House claimed he was being transparent by releasing his emails about meeting with a Russian lawyer, but the media just reported something else they may have conveniently left out.

Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist, has now confirmed to the Associated Press that he sat in on that meeting in June 2016. NBC News had reported earlier Friday that a Russian-American lobbyist was present, but hadn't used his name.

Akhmetshin told AP that the meeting was “not substantive” and that he “actually expected more serious” discussion. “I never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest,” he told AP.

He was more colorful in brief comments to Al-Monitor's Laura Rozen:

,,,

It's not terribly surprising that there was another person in that meeting. As I noted on Tuesday, the emails between Trump Jr. and a publicist arranging the meeting included this line from the publicist: "I will send the names of the two people meeting with you for security when I have them later today." But it seemed possible that the person was merely a translator, given the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, is not fluent in English.

But Akhmetshin's presence will only increase suspicions about the nature of the meeting. NBC describes him as "a former Soviet counter intelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence." Akhmetshin denies having served as a counterintelligence officer, and it's unclear what ties to Russia remain -- Akhmeshin's background will surely be a focus in the hours ahead -- but if it's true, "alleged former Russian agent attended meeting" sure looks like a bad headline.

Akhmetshin's ties have been the subject of plenty of speculation before. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly just three months ago asking for information and noting that Akhmetshin "has been accused of acting as an unregistered agent for Russian interests and apparently has ties to Russian intelligence." William Browder, the CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, filed a complaint with the Justice Department in July 2016 alleging that Akhmetshin failed to file as a foreign agent.

Veselnitskaya, of course, has her own alleged ties, so Akhmetshin wouldn't be the first person in that meeting with supposed links to the Kremlin. (The Kremlin has denied knowing either of them.) But his presence would increase suspicions that the Russian government was truly behind this, as the publicist who arranged it suggested in those emails. In other words: It would feed the narrative that this meeting was, in fact, Donald Trump Jr. working with the Russian government, albeit through intermediaries.

But at the very least, the White House is allowing this story to get out of hand. Trump Jr. and his father, President Trump, claimed transparency about the meeting earlier this week. Now we come to find out they left out a very important detail -- one of the apparently now five people who was in the room. At this point, it's almost as if they are trying to look like they are hiding something.

There are still many questions to be answered about this situation and things that don't yet add up about it. Apparently the White House is content to let the media put together the puzzle, piece by piece. If they truly have nothing to hide, that's a really bad strategy.

A little more about the lobbyist.

[fraurosena]

Here's some more info on Akhmetshin:

Former Soviet Counterintel Officer Says He Was In The Room With Don Jr., Too

Spoiler

A former Soviet counterintelligence officer-turned-lobbyist was also in the room with Donald Trump, Jr. when he met a Kremlin-linked attorney who promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton, according to NBC News and the Associated Press.

Rinat Akhmetshin, who TPM previously reported was part of a lobbying and PR effort around the adoption issue Trump Jr. initially said was the subject of the meeting, confirmed to the Associated Press that he was in the room. NBC News first reported Friday morning that there was a fifth person in the room, but in an odd move declined to name that person.

Akhmetshin downplayed the importance of his and Veselnitskaya’s conversation with the Trump campaign. “They couldn’t wait for the meeting to end,” Akhmetshin told the AP. The meeting was “not substantive” and his side of the talks “actually expected a more serious” conversation.

Then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and now his senior advisor, also attended the meeting arranged by music publicist Rob Goldstone at Trump Jr.’s request. Goldstone told Trump Jr. that the information the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, supposedly had to offer was part of the Russian government’s support for the Trump campaign.

Akhmetshin, a Russian émigré, says he has dual citizenship. He told Radio Free Europe in July of last year, “I am an American citizen since 2009 who pays taxes, earned his citizenship after living here since 1994, and swore an oath of loyalty to the United States of America,” protesting his characterization in a lawsuit that accused him of having worked for Russian intelligence. He would have had to declare such ties when he emigrated.

Akhmetshin was in the Russian army from 1986 to 1988, he told the AP, but he said that he had not done counterintelligence work. Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has accused Akhmetshin of working for the Russian GRU security service.

A career lobbyist, Akhmetshin was reportedly working at the time of the Trump Tower meeting for Denis Katsyv, head of the real estate firm Prevezon group that was ensnared in a U.S. investigation of a vast alleged Russian money-laundering scandal that had damaged the reputation of both Katsyv and Russian President Vladimir Putin. That Veselnitskaya, Katsyv’s attorney, was represented as an agent of the Russian government in Goldstone’s emails with Trump Jr. suggests ties between Putin’s interests and Katsyv’s.

Akhmetshin is another cog in the collusion and corruption scandal surrounding the presidunce, his family, his campaign and the repugliklans.

[GrumpyGran]

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Here's some more info on Akhmetshin:

Former Soviet Counterintel Officer Says He Was In The Room With Don Jr., Too

  Hide contents

A former Soviet counterintelligence officer-turned-lobbyist was also in the room with Donald Trump, Jr. when he met a Kremlin-linked attorney who promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton, according to NBC News and the Associated Press.

Rinat Akhmetshin, who TPM previously reported was part of a lobbying and PR effort around the adoption issue Trump Jr. initially said was the subject of the meeting, confirmed to the Associated Press that he was in the room. NBC News first reported Friday morning that there was a fifth person in the room, but in an odd move declined to name that person.

Akhmetshin downplayed the importance of his and Veselnitskaya’s conversation with the Trump campaign. “They couldn’t wait for the meeting to end,” Akhmetshin told the AP. The meeting was “not substantive” and his side of the talks “actually expected a more serious” conversation.

Then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and now his senior advisor, also attended the meeting arranged by music publicist Rob Goldstone at Trump Jr.’s request. Goldstone told Trump Jr. that the information the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, supposedly had to offer was part of the Russian government’s support for the Trump campaign.

Akhmetshin, a Russian émigré, says he has dual citizenship. He told Radio Free Europe in July of last year, “I am an American citizen since 2009 who pays taxes, earned his citizenship after living here since 1994, and swore an oath of loyalty to the United States of America,” protesting his characterization in a lawsuit that accused him of having worked for Russian intelligence. He would have had to declare such ties when he emigrated.

Akhmetshin was in the Russian army from 1986 to 1988, he told the AP, but he said that he had not done counterintelligence work. Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has accused Akhmetshin of working for the Russian GRU security service.

A career lobbyist, Akhmetshin was reportedly working at the time of the Trump Tower meeting for Denis Katsyv, head of the real estate firm Prevezon group that was ensnared in a U.S. investigation of a vast alleged Russian money-laundering scandal that had damaged the reputation of both Katsyv and Russian President Vladimir Putin. That Veselnitskaya, Katsyv’s attorney, was represented as an agent of the Russian government in Goldstone’s emails with Trump Jr. suggests ties between Putin’s interests and Katsyv’s.

Akhmetshin is another cog in the collusion and corruption scandal surrounding the presidunce, his family, his campaign and the repugliklans.

I admit I'm a little skeptical about this guy's story because, surely someone in Cheeto's brain trust(HAHAHA) would have pinned little Donnie down a few days ago and made him spit out the name of every single person who was in the meeting, then make it public, right? This slow stream of other participants popping out of doors isn't helping their narrative. Really, whoops, I forgot about that guy?

But "real estate firm" and "money laundering", yep, fits. The Hillary dirt part was just the cream on top. They know these people. It all keeps circling back. 

[fraurosena]

Well, @GrumpyGran, it seems there were even more people at that meeting, if Seth Abramson's tweet is true.

 

I think it's a matter of time before we learn the absolutely shocking (not) news that the tangerine toddler himself was there as well.

Oh, I looked it up, and well...

There were at least EIGHT people at that meeting!

Spoiler

The June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort included at least eight people.

The revelation of additional participants comes as The Associated Press first reported Friday that a Russian-American lobbyist named Rinat Akhmetshin said he also attended the June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. CNN has reached out to Akhmetshin for comment.

So far acknowledged in attendance: Trump Jr., Kushner, Manafort, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin and publicist Rob Goldstone, who helped set up the meeting. A source familiar with the circumstances told CNN there were at least two other people in the room as well, a translator and a representative of the Russian family who had asked Goldstone to set up the meeting. The source did not provide the names.

Akhmetshin is a registered lobbyist for Veselnitskaya's organization, which has focused on lobbying Washington to overturn the Magnitsky sanctions, according to lobbying records. The Magnitsky Act allows the US to withhold visas and freeze the assets of Russians thought to have violated human rights. Veselnitskaya founded a group purporting to seek the removal of Moscow's ban on the adoption of Russian children by US citizens, which it put in place in retaliation for the Magnitsky Act. She has also sought to repeal that law.

Earlier this year, Sen. Charles Grassley had written a letter to John Kelly, the secretary of Homeland Security, describing Akhmetshin as "a Russian immigrant to the United States who has been accused of acting as an unregistered agent for Russian interests and apparently has ties to Russian intelligence." Grassley was requesting "all information" on Akhmetshin's immigration history.

Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who has been lobbied by Akhmetshin, told CNN earlier this year that the lobbyist is someone with "an ulterior motive" who is "involved with people who've got an agenda" and has "international connections to different groups in Russia." When asked if he thought Akhmetshin was connected to the Russian security services, Rohrabacher said: "I would certainly not rule that out."

On Friday, Akhmetshin denied to The Washington Post that he was ever an intelligence agent but said he did serve two years in a Soviet military unit that handled counter-intelligence.

"At no time have I ever worked for the Russian government or any of its agencies. I was not an intelligence officer. Never," he told the Post.

Akhmetshin also told the AP the meeting was "not substantive" and he "actually expected more serious" conversation.

"I never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest," the AP quotes Akhmetshin.

The lawyer for Donald Trump Jr. has not responded. The White House has not commented yet either.

NBC was first to report the extra person at the meeting.

On June 9, 2016, Trump Jr., met with Veselnitskaya. He accepted the meeting on the premise that he would be offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

According to tweets published by Trump Jr. earlier this week, Goldstone sent him an email pointing to "a Russian government attorney" as the source of potential information that could damage Clinton.

"This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump," Goldstone, who represents the son of an Azerbaijani-Russian businessman close to Russian government, wrote in the email to Trump Jr.

"If it's what you say I love it," Trump Jr. replied, according to an email he released.

 

[GrumpyGran]

12 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Well, @GrumpyGran, it seems there were even more people at that meeting, if Seth Abramson's tweet is true.

 

I think it's a matter of time before we learn the absolutely shocking (not) news that the tangerine toddler himself was there as well.

Oh, I looked it up, and well...

There were at least EIGHT people at that meeting!

  Hide contents

The June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort included at least eight people.

The revelation of additional participants comes as The Associated Press first reported Friday that a Russian-American lobbyist named Rinat Akhmetshin said he also attended the June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. CNN has reached out to Akhmetshin for comment.

So far acknowledged in attendance: Trump Jr., Kushner, Manafort, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin and publicist Rob Goldstone, who helped set up the meeting. A source familiar with the circumstances told CNN there were at least two other people in the room as well, a translator and a representative of the Russian family who had asked Goldstone to set up the meeting. The source did not provide the names.

Akhmetshin is a registered lobbyist for Veselnitskaya's organization, which has focused on lobbying Washington to overturn the Magnitsky sanctions, according to lobbying records. The Magnitsky Act allows the US to withhold visas and freeze the assets of Russians thought to have violated human rights. Veselnitskaya founded a group purporting to seek the removal of Moscow's ban on the adoption of Russian children by US citizens, which it put in place in retaliation for the Magnitsky Act. She has also sought to repeal that law.

Earlier this year, Sen. Charles Grassley had written a letter to John Kelly, the secretary of Homeland Security, describing Akhmetshin as "a Russian immigrant to the United States who has been accused of acting as an unregistered agent for Russian interests and apparently has ties to Russian intelligence." Grassley was requesting "all information" on Akhmetshin's immigration history.

Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who has been lobbied by Akhmetshin, told CNN earlier this year that the lobbyist is someone with "an ulterior motive" who is "involved with people who've got an agenda" and has "international connections to different groups in Russia." When asked if he thought Akhmetshin was connected to the Russian security services, Rohrabacher said: "I would certainly not rule that out."

On Friday, Akhmetshin denied to The Washington Post that he was ever an intelligence agent but said he did serve two years in a Soviet military unit that handled counter-intelligence.

"At no time have I ever worked for the Russian government or any of its agencies. I was not an intelligence officer. Never," he told the Post.

Akhmetshin also told the AP the meeting was "not substantive" and he "actually expected more serious" conversation.

"I never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest," the AP quotes Akhmetshin.

The lawyer for Donald Trump Jr. has not responded. The White House has not commented yet either.

NBC was first to report the extra person at the meeting.

On June 9, 2016, Trump Jr., met with Veselnitskaya. He accepted the meeting on the premise that he would be offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

According to tweets published by Trump Jr. earlier this week, Goldstone sent him an email pointing to "a Russian government attorney" as the source of potential information that could damage Clinton.

"This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump," Goldstone, who represents the son of an Azerbaijani-Russian businessman close to Russian government, wrote in the email to Trump Jr.

"If it's what you say I love it," Trump Jr. replied, according to an email he released.

 

WTH! Now I'm mad that I wasn't invited! Seriously, now we know why they had to own up to it. Way too many uncontrollable witnesses. And do these people want something? This is starting to smell like blackmail