Man who arranged Donald Trump Jr meeting with Russian lawyer 'checked in' to Trump Tower on Facebook same day
The President's son recently released an email exchange detailing how the meeting was arranged
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The man who set up the meeting between Donald Trump Jr and a Russian lawyer "checked in" to Trump Tower on the same day, as shown in a Facebook post.
The meeting took place 9 June 2016 and Robert Goldstone has a public Facebook post from that day showing he was present at Trump Tower in New York City.
The feature only works based off of a user's mobile GPS, so Mr Goldstone was in the same building during the meeting between the President's eldest son and Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Kremlin-connected lawyer.
At first, the President's eldest son said the 9 June meeting with her was about the Magnitsky Act, a US law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers, according to the New York Times.
However, he changed his statement on 9 July 2017 to say that he took the meeting at the request of a contact from the the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant that took place in Moscow.
Mr Trump Jr said "the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms Clinton."
The Washington Post reported that Emin Agaralov, a Russian pop star, asked for the meeting. His father Aras Agaralov is a real estate magnate involved in business deals with the Trump organisation.
The singer and his father helped sponsor the 2013 beauty pageant, according to Mr Goldstone, who is a music producer.
Mr Goldstone told the newspaper that he set up the meeting at the request of the younger Mr Agaralov.
In emails released by Mr Trump Jr himself via Twitter was the string of emails in setting up the meeting.
Mr Goldstone wrote that the pop star's father and he met and the wealthy businessman "offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary [Clinton] and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father."
This was just weeks before Mr Trump had secured the Republican nomination for the election.
"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," Mr Goldstone wrote to Mr Trump Jr.
In the email he states that he wanted to have the information relayed to the candidate's son first rather than going directly to Donald Trump himself.
Mr Trump Jr responded with: "if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer".
Ms Veselnitskaya was not personally named in the email string but Mr Goldstone refers to her as "the Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow".
The exchange was then forwarded to White House aid and his brother-in-law Jared Kushner as well as then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who were both present at the meeting.
The President's son, in yet another statement, does not name Ms Veselnitskaya but noted that "she had no information to provide" on Ms Clinton and instead wanted to talk about the Magnitsky Act and Russian President Vladimir Putin's retaliation - ending American adoptions of Russian children.
He wrote that the meeting took place before "the current Russia fever was in vogue...The entire meeting was “the most inane” nonsense I ever heard."
Even before the email exchange was made public, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Mark Warner and Republican Senator Suzanne Collins said they would like to speak to Mr Trump Jr as part of their investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign team and Russian officials.
The FBI, House, and special prosecutor Robert Mueller also have ongoing investigations into the matter of alleged Russian influence on the election.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments