The principals in a series of emails and phone calls made in early June 2016 are as follows: Rob Goldstone, music publicist for Emin Agalarov, the pop star son of the Russian oligarch, Aras Agalarov, and Donald Trump Jr.
After getting an email from Goldstone, saying that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, Don Trump Jr emailed back that if what Goldstone said was true, he, Don Jr, said he would "love it." Goldstone told Don Jr that he should talk to Emin to arrange a meeting. Minutes after talking to Emin on June 6, Don Jr placed a 4-minute call to a blocked number. Later, Don Jr called Emin again scheduling a meeting for June 9, and then placed a 11-minute call to a blocked number. After the June 9 meeting ended, Don Jr placed a 3-minute call to a blocked number.
After the first two calls to a blocked number, Donald Trump, made a televised statement, saying he was going to make a "major speech" in the following week about "all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons...and I think you're going to find it very, very interesting." Trump did not make that speech in the following week. what seems likely here is that Trump had expected dirt on Hillary Clinton, but when dirt did not materialize, he had to scrap the speech.
We know that Donald Trump had a blocked phone number. Even if Don Jr had blocked numbers from more than one person, who was he most likely to call? His father had described himself as "the decider;" also, Don Jr would raise his esteem with his father if he could supply him with very useful campaign material.
Besides the timing and sequence of Don Jr's calls, there are other reasons to believe that Donald Trump knew about the June 9, 2016 meeting, either in advance, or shortly after it happened. Aras Agalarov had secured the venue for the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013. Aras's son, Emin, and Rob Goldstone had both known Donald Trump since 2013. Donald Trump was in his office one floor above where the meeting between high officials of the Trump campaign and five Russians was taking place. Wouldn't Emin and/or Rob want to say hello to Donald?
There was also a chance encounter between Ivanka Trump and two of the Russians who had been in the meeting. As Natalia Velesnitskaya, the Russian lawyer linked to the Russian government, and Rivat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist, left the Trump Tower, they exchanged "pleasantries" with Ivanka outside the elevator on the Fifth Ave skyscraper. If Ivanka had known about Velesnitskaya before the encounter, or if either of the two had identified themselves as Russians, is that the sort of thing that Ivanka might want to have a talk with her father?
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