Donald Trump Jr. didn’t just collude with Kremlin-connected sources in an attempt to gather information against Hillary Clinton, he got so excited about the idea that he called in then-campaign manager Paul Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner to join him. And then, in a move that shows that Junior really is his father’s son, he stomped on all attempts at providing a cover story with an open admission that he really did collude.
Trump Jr. confirmed that he went into the meeting expecting to receive information from the Russian lawyer that could hurt Clinton. That is a breathtaking admission.
But being a Republican means never having to accept responsibility. Just ask guy-who-is-so-frustrated-about-always-being-picked-last, Reince Priebus.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has accused Democratic operatives of arranging a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-linked lawyer last summer, two weeks after Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for president.
Yes, Priebus is accusing Democrats of wafting the sweet scent of kompromat in Junior’s direction.
On Sunday, Priebus said “the individual that set up the meeting may have been” associated with Fusion GPS, the Washington, D.C.-based strategy firm behind a leaked intelligence dossier that suggested Russian officials possess materials that could be used to blackmail President Trump. Trump’s Republican rivals in the primary funded the opposition research at first, but it was later continued with backing from the Democrats.
The problem with the first part of the statement? It’s not true. And the last part of the statement? It’s not true either.
Two of the sources involved in the original reveal of Trump Jr.’s actions have pointed at former tabloid journalist turned PR flack, Rob Goldstone. Goldstone has no connections to Fusion GPS, but he does have connections to Russian real estate scion Emin Agalarov. Agalarov also has no Fusion connection, but he does have this connection.
In an exclusive interview with FORBES, Emin Agalarov—a Russian pop singer, real estate mogul and son of one of the country’s richest people—described an ongoing relationship with the Trump family, including post-election contact with the president himself.
And really, none of that matters. Because while Priebus is attempting to paint a picture of Junior being set up by Democratic operatives who lured him in with a promise of Kremlin-generated Clinton dirt, the truth is Donald Trump Jr. already said that the person who set up the meeting was a friend involved in the 2013 Miss Universe pageant—which fits either Goldstone or Agalarov, both of whom were part of Trump Sr.’s Moscow-based event. Goldstone has now confirmed his involvement.
In a statement to The Associated Press on Monday, Rob Goldstone says the lawyer said she had information about purported illegal campaign contributions to the Democratic National Committee that she thought Donald Trump Jr. might find helpful.
Goldstone says Trump Jr. agreed to squeeze the meeting into a tight schedule.
There’s always room for kompromat.
While throwing off smoke about how the meeting was set, Priebus also provided some misdirection on the content of the discussion.
First, Junior already made it clear that he went into the meeting expecting to hear information the Trump campaign could use about Hillary Clinton. That the conversation switched to discussion of Russian adoption laws was a disappointment to Trump, not the purpose of the talk.
Second, the whole reason there is a problem with Russian adoptions is because Vladimir Putin instituted a ban on U.S. adoptions as retaliation for blacklisting of Russian officials1. So, what really happened is that the meeting became a discussion about opening lifting those restrictions with adoptions offered up as an excuse. In other words, the Russians presented Trump’s team what they wanted, rather than offering up the goods without a payment.
- The person that offered the information to Donald Trump Junior was someone who was known to him, and someone who had connections to family friends in Russia.
- The reason Trump Junior fit the meeting into “a tight schedule” was explicitly because it offered up Kremlin-sourced information about Hillary Clinton.
- Trump Junior thought the meeting was so important that he brought in Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort.
- Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya began by offering vague information about Hillary, followed by discussing blacklisted officials and how they could be connected to a block on U.S. adoptions.
In the end, the Trump team was not only provided a hint that Russia had more to offer on Hillary, but given a sample excuse they could use to free up blacklisted officials to use American banks. They got a taste of what was available, and entered negotiations on what it would take to get the good stuff.
One week later, Russia began releasing DNC information through WikiLeaks.
So the first question for Donald Trump Jr. when he is called before the Senate Intelligence Committee and/or Special Counsel Robert Mueller: was the WikiLeaks release the payoff from his meeting with Veselnitskaya?
Here’s a reminder of how these things were handled in ancient days of yore.
1 In an earlier version of this piece, I incorrectly stated that the adoption ban resulted from US sanctions rather than from the blacklisting of Russian officials involved in human rights abuses. Hopefully that has now been corrected.