The Trump Tower meeting took place on June 9, 2016 but did not come to public attention until a report by the New York Times on July 8, 2017, a report that added a lot more fuel to the Russia collusion fire, abetted by the clumsy handling of the news by the Trumps, father and son.
Donald Trump Jr's agreeing to that meeting was the height of stupidity and recklessness. The way to handle a sensitive offer of dirt regarding your opponent is to use cut-outs as the Clinton campaign did when it used FusionGPS, a firm working for a Putin-associated oligarch, to obtain information from Russian intelligence sources damaging to Donald Trump.
There were eight participants in the meeting, of whom six were interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee. In addition, everyone associated with the Trump campaign who testified was asked about the Trump Tower meeting (it turned out none of them were aware at the time it had occurred). It was also fascinating to see how many of the Russian participants had direct or indirect connections with Hillary Clinton or the Obama administration.
The participants (those interviewed in boldface):
Donald Trump Jr
Jared Kushner
Paul Manafort
Natalia Veselnitskaya (Russian lawyer and lobbyist, and hereafter referred to as V)
Ike Kaveladze (US based VP for real estate development company run by Russian Aras Agalarov)
Rinat Akhmetshin (Russian-American lobbyist)
Anatoli Samachornov (interpreter)
Rob Goldstone (music promoter, manager of Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, son of Aras)
My assessment is the basic story as laid out by the six witnesses is generally accurate because (1) the testimony is consistent though not so identical in the details as to raise suspicions, (2) Anatoli Samachornov is very credible (for reasons explained below), and (3) if the slightest discrepancy (real or imagined) had been found in anyone's testimony by the Mueller gang they would have been indicted for false statements as we saw with Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, and George Papadopolous. My takeaway - the meeting was a clown show from start to finish.
The origins of the meeting are in an early June 2016 phone call from Emin Agalarov to his manager Rob Goldstone, a dual US/UK citizen who Donald Trump Jr described in his testimony as a "
flamboyant music promoter" (p.27). He'd met Donald Sr in 2013 and been involved with negotiations for the Trump-sponsored Miss Universe Moscow later that year. Goldstone met Donald Jr the following year when he had a client appearing on Celebrity Apprentice (this is all so weird).
Not long before Agalarov called, Rob had worked with him on a music video featuring a song with visuals celebrating Hillary Clinton's success in beating Sanders and becoming the Democratic nominee. Unfortunately, the blowback from Emin's Russian fans was so bad they had to remove the video from social media. This time Emin was calling to convey a request from his father, a billionaire Russian real estate developer
who built the largest indoor shopping center in Moscow as well as the Trade Expo, hosted the Trump owned Miss Universe 2013 Contest in Moscow, received the Russian Order of Honor from Putin the same year, and is a partner with Robert DeNiro in two Moscow restaurants
, to arrange a meeting between V and the Trumps. In 2017, Agaralov joined the list of sanctioned Russian oligarchs under a Congressional act signed into law by President Trump. Goldstone summarized the information:
I wonder if you could contact the Trumps. My father just had a meeting with a Russian attorney in his office, who has some potentially damaging information about Russian funding to the Democrats and Hillary. (p.33)
Based on his testimony and a little research on Goldstone, this is a guy who knows nothing about politics (and cares less) but will do anything to promote his client and since the client asked him to arrange a meeting he was now on a mission. Think of the
Matthew McConaughey agent character in
Tropic Thunder willing to go to any length to get his client his Tivo, even if it means a dangerous trip into the jungle, and you've captured the essence of Goldstone.
Goldstone told the committee he had only one shot at getting the attention of Don Jr so sent him an email promising "
some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary" (p.37), describing it as "
a schmooze tactic" and was very pleased when he got back a response indicating interest and willingness to meet (p.41) so there is no doubt Don Jr agreed to the meeting because of the promise of damaging information regarding Hillary. Goldstone never met V until he met her and the others in the Trump Tower lobby to take them to the meeting.
Trey Gowdy asked how he could reconcile his putting together a video celebrating Hillary Clinton with the email promising incriminating information on the same person. Goldstone's response:
I'm not in the slightest bit political . . . my job is to promote Emin the best way I could. And if I had been able to convince the DNC to use this song, it would have been amazing for him. And if ultimately my sole client asked me to send an email that's important to him and/or his father . . . well, again, I'll do that. (p.47)
V was a Russian lawyer who spoke no English. She was a litigator (the question of whether, or to what extent, she was connected to the Russian government remains unclear) who'd been working for Denis Katys, owner of Prevezon Holdings on litigation regarding the U.S. government's actions in seizing his properties, on investigating Bill Browder, proponent of the Magnitsky Act, and to lobby to overturn or modify the Act. The Magnitsky Act is named after a Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian accountant who worked for Bill Browder on his Russian business. Magnitsky was arrested and allegedly beaten to death in a Russian prison, prompting the U.S. Congress to pass the Act which included sanctions on a number of Kremlin-linked oligarchs, including Katys, who also hired FusionGPS to lobby against the Act. As a result, V and Glenn Simpson worked closely together. In fact, V and Simpson had lunch together the day before the Trump Tower meeting and met again the day following the meeting.
Samachornov described V as a one issue person who was driven to meet any person who might help her client. My guess is that Agaralov's call to Goldstone was prompted by Katys contacting him. Ironically, the sequence undermines a theory the Democrats on the committee tried to promote, that Agaralov was closely linked to the Trumps. If that had been true, why would he have needed to go through Rob Goldstone to set up the meeting?
Ike Kaveladze came to the U.S. in 1991 and is a dual U.S./Russia citizen, working for Agalarov who asked him to attend the meeting to translate for Veselnitskaya who spoke no English. Prior to the meeting, V told him it was to be primarily about the Magnitsky Act but also mentioned she had some information damaging to the Clinton campaign. It was only when he met Veselnitskaya for lunch before going over to Trump Tower for the meeting that he found out she had hired Samochornov to interpret so although he accompanied V to the meeting he felt pretty useless.
Anatoli Samochornov is considered the best Russian-English interpreter in the New York area, coming to the U.S. in 1991 and is a U.S. (not dual) citizen. Working as a contract interpreter for the State Department since 1997 he has, among other assignments, interpreted at President Obama's UN summit on refugees. He was hired in October 2015 as an interpreter by a Foundation funded by Denis Katys, who had also retained V, Akhmetshin, and Glenn Simpson. His initial meeting with them was at the New York offices of the international law firm of Baker & Hostetler regarding Prevezon's ongoing litigation. Samochornov has no record of contact with any Russian government officials. Having spent time with V over the prior months he was asked about her views of U.S. politics and replied, "I would not characterize her as partisan towards U.S. politics in one particular way or another", and had never heard her speak about the Trump family until a few days before the meeting when she asked him to attend and interpret. He also testified he had no idea what the meeting was about until he was in it. Of all the participants in the meeting Samochornov comes across as the most grounded, sophisticated, and direct in his testimony. In fact, we recently learned that four days after the story broke in 2017 he was interviewed by the Mueller gang and when he confirmed Donald Jr's story they lost all further interest in the matter.
The last member of the crew was Rinat Akhmetshin, another U.S./Russia dual citizen who arrived in the early 1990s. He's actively worked as a lobbyist, primarily for the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and, at the time, was also working with a Russian foundation aiming to restart Russian adoptions by Americans, a foundation funded by Denis Katys of Prevezon, which Putin had terminated in retaliation for passage of the Magnitsky Act. Rinat was very blunt with the committee, testifying that while he has done no work for Putin or his associates, he will not work for any Russian directly opposing the regime because it is too dangerous (press reports often claim Akhmetshin was part of Russian intelligence, but he explained his only link was military service in the late 1980s as a guard at intelligence facilities and no information contradicting him has surfaced). He testified the FBI routinely debriefed him after meetings with Russian officials. Akhmetshin had met V in the course of his work for the foundation.
After learning he was in New York to see a show that evening, V invited Akhmetshin to lunch which is when he learned about the Trump Tower meeting which V invited him to join. (1) Rinat was unprepared, telling the committee he was wearing a t-shirt and jeans but ended up accompanying them anyway. Akhmetshin saw the briefing paper V had prepared for the meeting and realized that while it contained a brief reference to the Ziff Brothers hedge fund issue it was primarily about the Magnitsky Act and didn't realize there was any connection with Clinton. Samachornov described the conversation at lunch as "the Magnitsky law, Mr. Browder, the Prevezon case", and told the committee the subject of U.S. politics, the election, and the Trumps never came up.
Since Goldstone was the only one who'd been to Trump Tower he walked them over to the building, checked them through security in the lobby and went up the elevator with the group. His intent had been to introduce them to Don Jr and then leave but Don Jr asked him to stay.
On the Trump side, Jared testified he was not told anything about "damaging information", wasn't sure what the meeting was about and attended as a courtesy to Donald Jr.
Once introductions were made, V launched into her presentation, the first part of which was a convoluted story about an American hedge fund, operated by the Ziff Brothers, committing tax fraud in US and Russia with the aid of Browder and funneling contributions to the Democratic National Committee. (2) As she went on, Kaveladze testified that "Mr Kushner was very frustrated. He looked very frustrated" (p.69), finally interrupting and, according to Goldstone, asking, "Could you just come to a point, or is there a point to this?" (p.87). Akhmetshin testified that Don Jr also quickly lost interest. [ADDED: In his testimony, FusionGPS head Glenn Simpson testified that some of the information presented by V was based on research his firm had done, though he claimed he had no knowledge of the meeting and it was not a set-up of the Trumps. I trust Simpson as much as I trust Steve Bannon - not at all.]
At that point, Akhmetshin, sensing disaster, jumped in and gave an impromptu talk about the Magnitsky Act and the prohibition on adoptions from Russia, which tested the patience of Trump Jr and Kushner even more (according to all those who testified, throughout the entire meeting Paul
Manafort was doing stuff on his cellphone and never paid the least
attention, except for one moment (3)) Kushner testified he texted his admin to call and get him out of the meeting and the other participants agreed he left before it ended. The meeting finally ground to a halt after 20 minutes. Akhmetshin told the committee, "I thought the whole meeting was ridiculous" (p.147) Goldstone stated he was embarrassed and apologized to Don Jr as they were leaving.
Don Jr repeatedly stated he had not told his father about the meeting either before or after it happened, nor had he mentioned its purpose to Manafort or Kushner. He said his reason for not doing so beforehand was he wanted to vet the information promised by Goldstone before informing Trump Sr. My take is that Don Jr was trying to stake out a bigger role for himself in the campaign and it would have been quite a big deal for him to have more scandalous Clinton information handed to him. His explanation for why he didn't tell Dad after the meeting, also helps explain his hesitation before:
"I believe I would remember a conversation like that with my father, and I also would not bring my father something that I believe to be a waste of time. I've learned that through many years of working with him the hard way." (p.126)
Based on what I already knew about Trump before 2016, having observed him since, and read the testimony of how he operated his business and campaign by those who know him, Don Jr's explanation rings true with me. The Trump Tower meeting was a disaster; nothing came of it. Why would he tell his father and look like a fool?
There is also no documentary evidence to the contrary. I've haven't noted this before but all of those associated with the Trump Org or Campaign also had their records subpoenaed, including emails, by the committee and were questioned intensively by the members. And this crowd was too naive to know not to put some things in writing.
Under questioning Ike Kaveladze stated he told his wife and 13-year old daughter about the meeting before it occurred, telling them V had some information damaging to Hillary Clinton, which upset his daughter who supported Clinton. After he left the meeting he called his daughter to tell her nothing damaging to Hillary happened.
I learned from his testimony that Rinat Akhmetshin also had a Hillary Clinton connection. His business colleague Edward Lieberman, was married to Evelyn Lieberman, White House assistant to Hillary and later Deputy Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton. It was Evelyn who spotted what was going on with Monica Lewinsky and moved her to an assignment away from any connection with Bill. She later became Director of Voice of America. Akhmetshin had been to the Lieberman's home on several occasions and more than once had met Hillary there. He also referred to Glenn Simpson of FusionGPS as an "
old acquaintance". (p.42)
In questioning of Trump campaign witnesses, Schiff and Swalwell pushed hard to establish that Donald Trump's campaign remark on June 7, two days before the Trump Tower meeting, that the following Monday (June 13) he'd have some new big news about Hillary, showed he knew about the planned meeting in advance. Both Hope Hicks and Steve Bannon testified the reference was to Clinton Cash, a book published in 2015 by Peter Schweizer, documenting the seedy side of the Clinton Foundation, which had been recently made into a documentary. The plan was for a event showcasing the film and its first U.S. showing. However, on the night of June 11-12,
Omar Mateen killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida and the event was postponed while the campaign focused on the candidate's response to the murders.
The existing record shows V's intent was to use the potentially damaging information about Hillary as a hook to get the meeting which was, in reality, about lobbying for repeal of the Magnitsky Act. The preparation and coordination for the Russians attending the meeting was very poor, with V having little idea how to effectively make her case.
There are alternative explanations as to how and why the approach to the Trumps was made.
(1) As described by Samachornov, V was monomanical about the case and may have come up with the idea herself and gone to Katys.
(2) Katys and Agaralov may have seen the damaging information on Clinton as a way to curry favor with the Trumps, either if Don Sr unexpectedly was elected or, if he lost, as way to enhance relationships. If so, it shows how little understanding they had of American politics.
(3) This was part of a deep convoluted Kremlin plot to do something, I'm just not sure what, given the damaging information was a nothingburger.
(4) Could it have been Glenn Simpson who planted the idea with V of a meeting with the Trumps? He had worked closely with her and was tied to the same oligarch whose interests he was advancing. What they didn't know was Simpson had been hired by the Clinton campaign to investigate Trump's Russian connections and had recently hired, or was about to hire, Christopher Steele. Unlike the Russians, Simpson was sophisticated enough to understand the implications of a direct meeting between them and the Trump campaign. Weighing against this theory is it would have been in Simpson's interests to make the meeting public before the election.
In any event, there is no evidence the damaging information was anything beyond the Ziff Brothers
(4) allegation and none of the participants had any followup with anyone associated with the Trump campaign.
We'll leave the last word on this debacle to Corey Lewandowski who
testified he spoke with President Trump shortly after news of the
meeting became public in 2017. Lewandowski said he told the President, "
I thought it was a politically stupid thing to do to have that meeting." The President responded, according to Lewandowski:
"He acknowledged it was a short, stupid meeting too and probably shouldn't have taken place". (p.87)
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(1) Samachornov tells a different version of how Akmetshin ended up in the meeting. According to his account, once the meeting with Don Jr was set, V asked him to send a text to Rob Goldstone asking him to pass on her request to Don Jr to:
". . . include our trusted associate and lobbyist, Mr Rinat Akmetshin, who is working to advance these issues with several congressmen." (p.24)
Goldstone texted back:
"I would suggest you bring whoever you need in order to make the meeting successful." (p.28)
The evidence of all those involved would indicate Goldstone never passed on the request to formally add Akmentshin or, for that matter, Kaveladze, to the meeting and it was only Goldstone's presence as someone known to Trump Tower security that got them all up where the Trump crowd seemed surprised at the number of visitors.
Whether Akmetshin really knew in advance about the meeting in part depends on whether his testimony that he showed up at the lunch in t-shirt and jeans is true. Both sides in this meeting seem to have been rather casual in the lead up to the event.
(2) Samachornov's summary of V's presentation:
". . . she spoke that during the course of her research into the Prevezon case she uncovered financial irregularities by Mr. Browder and also by his client, the Ziff Brothers, who were contributors - and here again, I don't remember - either to the DNC or to Mrs. Clinton's campaign." (p.48)
(3) According to Samachornov, when V mentioned contributions from the Ziff Brothers, Manafort looked up from his phone and:
". . . he said something along the lines that the fact that there is a political contribution is not significant, that people contribute to both parties all the time." (p.49)
(4) Daniel, Dirk and Robert Ziff are the sons of William Ziff a prominent magazine publisher. They started Ziff Brothers Investments in 1994. Two of them live in Manhattan and the other in Palm Beach. My guess is Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump know them.
