Goldstone: Invitation to Donald Trump Jr. offering dirt on Hillary Clinton was legit
How did a music promoter get wrapped up in Russiagate — and come out so candid to the press?
The publicist who arranged a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and several Kremlin-linked Russians has spoken out about the email he sent offering “incriminating information” on Hillary Clinton and says he is eager to speak with special counsel Robert Mueller.
British music publicist Rob Goldstone told The Sunday Times Magazine that last June his client, Russian pop star and real estate mogul Emin Agalarov, wanted to get in touch with the Trumps.
Goldstone told the magazine he was the conduit between Agalarov and the Trumps and recalled, “I remember specifically saying to Emin, you know, we probably shouldn’t get involved in this. It’s politics, it’s Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.” The Russian singer’s father, Aras Agalarov, had helped host Donald Trump’s Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013 and worked to negotiate a Trump Tower real estate deal in Moscow. … His client persisted. “All I had to do was facilitate a meeting, he said, after which I walk away from it and whatever comes of it, thank you very much,” Goldstone added.
“If I’m guilty of anything, and I hate the word guilty, it’s hyping the message and going the extra mile for my clients. Using hot-button language to puff up the information I had been given. I didn’t make up the details, I just made them sound more interesting,” Goldstone said.
“The hardest part has been just dealing with people’s perception of who I am, people’s perception of what went on, and ultimately having to say nothing,” he says. “Clients have often asked me to do crazy stuff. Those things don’t freak me out. What freaks me out is silence. There is nothing harder than saying nothing.”
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“I’m keen to talk to [Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Senate investigative committees] and put my recollection of events in the public record,” Goldstone says. So why is he choosing to do this interview now? “After the story initially broke, it seemed to quieten down for a while. But now it’s back in the news with such force, I feel it’s time for me to explain what happened.”
