Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer in July 2016 after learning she had damaging information about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic opponent of now-President Trump. But Trump Jr. and other key figures involved in the meeting downplayed the gathering when questioned by Senate investigators.
Rob Goldstone, a music publicist who set up the meeting, was also in attendance, as well as Rinat Akhmetshin, a prominent Russian-American lobbyist, Ike Kaveladze, a business associate of a Moscow-based developer and a translator. A spokesperson for Trump’s outside legal team said Trump “was not aware of and did not attend the meeting.”
^ "Trump Jr. says he can't recall White House role in explaining meeting with Russians". The Washington Post. July 11, 2017. Archived from the original on September 8, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017. ^ "Exclusive: Trump says he does not fault son for meeting Russian lawyer".
Instead, Trump attended a Trump Victory fundraising lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, and returned to Trump Tower at 1:02 PM, where he "remained for the rest of the afternoon". According to emails, the Veselnitskaya meeting was scheduled for 4:00 PM.
ABC News has since confirmed that Rob Goldstone brokered the meeting, according to a source familiar with the situation. Goldstone is a music publicist who was involved in the Miss Universe pageant, which the Trump family previously owned. Goldstone has since released a statement about the meeting, saying he was asked by a client to facilitate ...
President Donald Trump defended his son for the first time on Tuesday July 11 , having by White House principal deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a statement on his behalf on that day’s off-camera briefing.
Goldstone has since released a statement about the meeting, saying he was asked by a client to facilitate the meeting, with the client claiming that the lawyer made statements about information possibly of interest to Trump.
Balber said Kaveladze was there to be a translator, but when he arrived he discovered Veselnitskaya already had one. Balber said Kaveladze has no prior relationship with Veselnitskaya and he said “unequivocally” Kaveladze has absolutely no connection to the Russian government, “not in any respect, now or ever.”.
Anatoli Samachornov8. Ike Kaveladze. Donald Trump Jr. met with the Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, but said in his statement to ABC News, “I was not told her name prior to the meeting.”.
Akhmetshin told the AP that he served in a military unit that was part of counterintelligence operations but said he was not formally trained as a spy. Anatoli Samachornov served as the translator for the meeting, and Akhmetshin identified him to The New York Times and confirmed that he was in the meeting.
During his interview on "Hannity," Trump Jr. admitted the situation may have been mishandled, but he said that the meeting was "a nothing" and maintained that his father had had no knowledge of the encounter. "There was nothing to tell," said Trump Jr.
Donald Trump Jr. meets with Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who has ties to the Kremlin, at Trump Tower. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Mr. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also attend the meeting. Veselnitskaya told NBC News that she " never had any damaging or sensitive information about Hillary Clinton ," ...
arranged to meet with Veselnitskaya during the presidential campaign, two weeks after Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, on June 9, 2016 at Trump Tower, and that Manafort and Kushner also attended the meeting. Trump Jr. releases this statement:
had been informed that the compromising information the Russian lawyer was going to offer him on Hillary Clinton was part of the Russian government's effort to help President Trump's candidacy.
Aras Agalarov was responsible for bringing Trump's Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013. Goldstone offers in his email to send the information to Mr. Trump, "but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first," he wrote to Trump Jr.
The White House says the president didn't know about his son's meeting with the Russian lawyer in June 2016 even though Mr. Trump was in New York that same day. Asked when the president learned about the meeting, deputy spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "I believe in the last couple of days is my understanding.".
Kellyanne Conway is asked in an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation" if anyone involved in Mr. Trump's campaign have any contact with Russians trying to interfere in the U.S. presidential election. Conway says, "Absolutely not. And I discussed that with the president-elect just last night.
A few days after the election, Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, is quoted as telling the Interfax news agency that "there were contacts" with influential people connected to Mr. Trump. But his spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, denies that ever happened. "It never happened," she said, according to NBC News. "There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign," a statement that was later proved wrong .