Volume V: Part 3, the Trump Tower Meeting

 

So, with Donald Trump under indictment and both Big Ones having dropped, it seems almost anti-climactic to go back to the Senate Intelligence Committee of Trump/Russia, but here we are.

The investigation is also rapidly declining in juiciness, moving now to Trump's business ties to Russia, and the to Trump Tower meeting, which has been examined in exhaustive detail and determined not to have gone anywhere.  Still, there are some redacted portions that have to make you wonder.

Volume V makes the point, not emphasized in the Mueller Report, that the people who approached Donald, Jr. about potential dirt from the Russian government were long-time business associates. Presumably this had a disarming effect on Junior and made it hard for him to think of the whole business as anything improper, let alone sinister.  The section goes on for over 140 pages, from 259 to 406, much of it decidedly dull.

Junior was approached by Emin Agalarov, son of Aras Agalarov, both associates of the Trumps who had done much to arrange the Miss Universe competition in Moscow and to make ultimately failed negotiations for a Trump Tower in Moscow.  

Aras Agalarov

The Agalarovs have significant ties to Russian organized crime including "individuals involved in murder, prostitution, weapons trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, narcotics trafficking, money laundering and significant other criminal enterprises," and also with the Russian government, including individuals who targeted the US elections (p. 261).  In other words, they are fairly typical Russian oligarchs. This is followed by three and a half pages redacted, so the usual caveat applies that whatever his hidden is never as juicy as you imagine.  They also know the individuals involved in the Trump Tower meeting, although neither father nor son attended (p. 267).  

The report gives all  back-and-forth about the negotiations for the Miss Universe contest in Moscow, the only part of which is any way interesting or significant is that Trump was very eager to meet with Putin while in Moscow for the pageant, although no such meeting ultimately took place.  

It also traces Trump's movements in Moscow in great detail, presumably to see if there was any possibility of a sex tape used for blackmail. Trump was only in Moscow for a day and a half, and one night, and was out in public for most of the time.  He arrived at 2:45 p.m. on November 8, 2013 and spent the afternoon and evening in public, retiring at 1:00 a.m.  He did spend the night at the Ritz Carlton, but not in the Presidential suite.  His bodyguard, Keith Schiller, said that they were approached by a man who offered to send five prostitutes to their room, and that they refused (p. 294).  Schiller made clear that he saw such an offer as dangerous and was firm in his refusal. Trump left a gap in his public schedule the next day in hopes of a meeting with Putin that did not materialize.  The gap was roughly from 4:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., when the pageant began. Trump attended the pageant and an after-party, staying till nearly 3:00 a.m. and then catching a plane back to New York.

So, there were two times during the visit that Trump was unsupervised -- during the night that he stayed, and the following afternoon before the pageant.  His bodyguard stepped in to block any prostitutes during the night, and the following afternoon was spent in anticipation of meeting with Putin.  It is not impossible that some prostitutes visited during one of those times, but it seems unlikely.

Emin Agalarov

Following the pageant, the Trumps and the Agalarovs attempted to negotiate building a Trump Tower in Moscow (described in painstaking detail), but it fell through by the end of 2014.  It is neither surprising nor sinister that the Agalarovs voiced support when Trump announced his campaign for President.  More interestingly, Emin Agalarov's agent Rob Goldstone (recall that Emin is a singer), approached VK, a Russian social media company, f about setting up an account for the Trump campaign.  As with any Russian company, VK is closely intertwined with the Russian government.  VK also has ties to the Russian intelligence services and the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a/k/a the Troll Farm.  Three mostly redacted pages follow, although ultimately the Committee did not find any significant interaction between the Trump campaign and Russian social media.

The Agalarovs arranged the Trump Tower meeting between the Trump campaign and government officials, although they did not attend.  It still seems a bit suspicious that Aras (Russian oligarch, probably target for NSA surveillance) passed the message through his son (oligarch's son, singer, less probable target), who sent the message through his agent Rob Goldstone (entertainment agent, British national, permanent US resident, not any sort of target).  Goldstone told the Committee that his alarming language ("This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government support for Mr. Trump") was based on his supposition and not on any direct information from Emin.  

Recall that at the time, the Trump campaign had no idea that the Russians had hacked the DNC or the Clinton campaign, or that they had plans to release the information in a damaging manner.  Their focus was primarily on the Clinton Foundation, which they had all manner of lurid speculation about.  Junior's immediate thought appears to have been that the Russians had some negative information on the Clinton Foundation.  One can imagine that Junior was thinking in terms of something the Russians learned in their direct dealings with Hillary as Secretary of State, and it may not have occurred to him that there was anything improper, let alone illegal, about accepting such information.  One person who did recognize the offer as potentially dangerous was Paul Manafort, who warned the others not to expect anything to come of the offer, and that the Russians had an agenda of their own and should not be trusted. Donald, Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, met with the Russian delegation.

Natalia Veselnitskaya

Volume V sets forth the meeting, including the leadup and the aftermath, in excruciating detail, including where the Russians were waiting before the meeting, and where they went afterward to discuss it.  It also give information (much of it redacted) in the Russian delegation.  Its leader, Natalia Veselnitskaya, is a Russian lawyer most noted for her advocacy against Magnitsky sanctions and championship of sanctioned individuals.  The report details her connections to the Russian government and intelligence services, with over four pages redacted, except to comment that former FBI director Louis Freeh is now a lobbyist for the Russian government against the Magnitsky sanctions.  (I didn't know that!).  Accompanying Veselnitskaya was Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist with suspected ties to the Russian government and intelligence community, including a hacking and dumping history (four and a half pages blacked out). Akhnetshin knew Sam Patten, a Trump campaign official, but not Manafort.

As for the meeting itself, Volume V does not add anything that was not already known.  Veselnitskaya lobbied against the Magnitsky sanctions, denounced their author, Bill Browder, and attempted (not very successfully) to tie him to the Democrats and the Clinton campaign.  No one considered the meeting to have been productive.  Junior specifically asked about the Clinton Foundation and received nothing.  Five days later, the news of the Russian hack of the DNC came out.  Goldstone found the whole thing "eerily weird."

All of this was known before the Committee report.  The Committee released one "eerily weird" nugget not known before.  Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe organization, said that Goldstone had told her that he went to the meeting because the Russians "supposedly had emails from the Democrats and dirt on Hillary and then it turned out to be something about adoptions."  (p. 379). When the report of the hacks came out, Shugart thought it sounded like exactly what Goldstone was talking about (p. 380).  This is the only evidence anyone has found tying the Trump Tower meeting to the hack and leak -- an tenuous tie, and a questionable one, but there it is.

There does not appear to have been any follow-up, other than a few more attempts by Veselnitskaya to lobby against the sanctions after Trump was elected.  Maybe there was nothing more.  On the other hand, as was so often the case, the Committee had no access the the Russian side of things. We know that about five hours after Trump made his "Russia if you're listening" remark, but Russian intelligence really did escalate its attempts to hack Hillary Clinton directly.  We do not absolutely know that this was cause and effect, but the timing is suspicious.  It strongly implies that the Russians learned that Trump was open to their help and gave it.  

Could it be that this meeting showed the Russians that the Trump campaign was open to their help and influenced their future actions?  There is not way to tell.