507

Though technically it was really more Emin’s father than he himself who set up the Trump Tower collusion meeting with the Russians.

However, you have to wonder if Agalarov still thinks that all this is a good thing-all publicity is good publicity. 11 days before the NY Times first broke the story of the #CollusionMeeting at Trump Tower, Rob Goldstone sent popstar Emin Agalarov an email expressing regret-the Trump Tower meeting was an awful idea and a terrible meeting. 

Again, note this was before the story broke-it would break in a week and a half-but after Goldstone had been grilled by investigators.

In an email to Agalarov in June 2017, Goldstone expressed concern that the investigation was becoming very serious and said he regretted the whole thing. “I did say at the time this was an awful idea and a terrible meeting,” he wrote.

“This was also, notably, 11 days before the New York Times first reported on the existence of the meeting. It shows again how far ahead Mueller’s team is of what we see being reported.”

At the time, Agalarov told Goldstone not to worry-that it was ‘mega pr and making you one of the most famous people in the world.’

Goldstone didn’t seem convinced, pointing out that Jeffrey Dahmer also had mega pr. 

“According to Goldstone’s testimony, his longtime client, Azerbaijani Russian pop singer Emin Agalarov, tried to persuade him that the firestorm around the British publicist’s brokering of a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower was “mega PR”, adding: “This is making you one of the most famous people in the world.”

Goldstone replied: “You know, [serial killer] Jeffrey Dahmer was famous. I don’t think he got a lot of work out of it.” He then hung up the phone.

Agalarov clearly believed it was great pr at the time-he even wrote a song about it. As a frustrated pop star-trying to make it big on his Daddy’s money-he was desperate for the publicity and truly did see being in this firestorm as a goldmine. By the way, we’re not kidding-Agalarov really did write a song about colluding with Trump. 

“A player in the various investigations — Russian pop music star Emin Agalarov, who helped arrange an infamous meeting with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in 2016 — has put out a music video jokingly portraying himself as involved in all sorts of shady activities connected to American politics.”

“The video, flagged by CNN’s Hunter Schwarz on Twitter, features Emin carousing with impersonators of Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, Hillary Clinton, and even Stormy Daniels. Emin hands over mysterious briefcases and envelopes, as he repeatedly sings “You got me so good, you really got me so good.”

I could imagine that being a hit…

He assures that the video was just satire.

Well, we’ll see if Agalarov still thinks this is just a Godsend for mega pr now as Mueller wants to interview him. 

BREAKING NEWS (and right as I'm finishing the chapter of my book on Emin and Trump's exploits in Moscow in 2013, which exploits I began writing about here on Twitter well over a year ago): https://t.co/jDuPQSBAz8

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) August 2, 2018

Special counsel Robert Mueller has requested an interview with Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, who helped set up the now infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting, according to Agalarov’s lawyer.

“Conversations are ongoing” about a potential interview, the lawyer, Scott Balber, wrote in an email. “Unclear how this will play out.”

“Balber did not elaborate on whether Mueller is also interested in speaking to Agalarov’s father, Aras Agalarov, a billionaire with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

I’d be shocked if he weren’t as it seems from Rob Goldstone’s emails, that his father was the brains behind the meeting.

“The Agalarovs were partners in the Trump Organization’s hosting of the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They also played a key role in arranging the June 2016 meeting of Donald Trump Jr.; Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and now senior adviser; Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager at the time; a Kremlin-linked lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya; and others, according to congressional testimony.”

“Aras Agalarov had told an intermediary, Rob Goldstone, that Veselnitskaya had “information that would incriminate” Hillary Clinton, Goldstone wrote in an email to Trump Jr. on June 3, 2016.”

In Goldstone’s testimony he made it sound like no useful dirt on Clinton was actually presented at the actual meeting. But if nothing else Don Jr’s intent to obtain it is demonstrated intent-if it’s what you say, I love it. And Goldstone had the clear intent to help facilitate the trading of this dirt as Agalarov had told him the information Veselntiskaya would provide would incriminate Clinton. So Goldstone can’t feign innocence either.

“In 2013, Donald Trump was featured in one of Emin Agalarov’s music videos. In late June, Agalarov released a video appearing to mock the Mueller investigation and using impersonators to portray Trump and Clinton.”

“Also at the meeting was Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze, an Agalarov employee.”

Note that Akhmetshin was not just any ‘Russian-American lobbyist’ he also was a suspect in a worldwide hacking conspiracy. 

According to Veselnitskaya, Agalarov was crucial in setting up the meeting.

“Veselnitskaya told NBC News last year that Emin Agalarov was crucial in setting up the meeting, although she claimed at the time that she had never met him.”

“In testimony to the Senate judiciary committee, Trump Jr. said he did not remember whether or not he had spoken directly to Emin Agalarov about the meeting.”

Note when testifying before Congress saying you don’t remember when you do is also a lie.

Phillip Bump laid out the timeline.

Philip Bump lays out the timeline in detail here:

• June 6, 4:04 p.m.: Agalarov calls Trump Jr. Call logs suggest that the call lasts between 60 seconds and two minutes.
• June 6, 4:27 p.m.: Trump Jr. is in contact with a blocked number. It lasts for four minutes. It’s not clear if the call was outgoing or incoming; the testimony suggests that it was incoming but a report from Senate Democrats suggests it was outgoing. (The phone records are redacted in the documents released on Wednesday.)
• June 6, 4:31 p.m.: Trump Jr. calls Agalarov. The call lasts for three minutes.
• June 6, 4:38 p.m.: Trump Jr. emails Goldstone. “Rob thanks for the help.”

So Jr did have conversations with Agalarov his telling the Senate Judiciary Committee he didn’t was, uh, perjury. 

FN: Though Mueller apparently thinks not only can you not indict a fake ‘President’ but also not the fake ‘President’s’ son.

 Goldstone suggests Veselnitskaya was pitched as having Russian government connections

“Veselnitskaya has denied she was working for the Kremlin, despite her ties to it. But Goldstone suggested he was led to believe she was very closely tied.”

Goldstone said Emin Agalarov pitched Veselnitakaya as being “well-connected.”

“I say, well-connected to what, the power grid? And Emin said, well-connected,” Goldstone said.

“Goldstone’s initial email to Trump Jr. said the information came from the Russian government. This suggests he wasn’t guessing or speaking loosely.”

Again, Goldstone is not innocent in terms of intent and clearly he knows a lot about the planning of this meeting. Did he tell the full truth in his testimony?

For his part, Agalarov contradicts Don Jr-they did speak before the meeting. 

In an interview this month with “VICE News Tonight” on HBO, Emin Agalarov said he and Trump Jr. did speak before the meeting was set up.

“I said, ‘Listen there’s some people that want to meet you,’” Agalarov told Vice. “’They obviously want something that could potentially help them resolve things that you could be interested in or maybe not. If you can spare a few minutes of your time, I’d be grateful. If not, no problem.'”

These are the kinds of things, Mueller will be very interested to hear about.

CNN had questioned Agalarov last year.

https://twitter.com/scottbabcock/status/1025087408197386240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1025087408197386240&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flastmenandovermen.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D37745%26action%3Dedit

He didn’t seem to be enjoying the mega publicity that day-he was very terse: ‘No comment. Talk to my lawyer.’

A big question is what role Emin’ s father, Aras Agalarov on the right on the featured picture on this page, had in setting up this meeting. Emin himself is clearly not a political mind-he’s a frustrated popstar. As noted above, I’d be shocked if Mueller were not interested in speaking to him as well-of course, getting him here might be a challenge, to say the least.

Going by Goldstone’s June 3, 2016 email, a lot. According to Goldstone circa June 3, 2016, the dirt was being provided thanks to a meeting between Aras Agalarov and the ‘Crown Prosecutor’ of Russia-as ‘part of the Russian government’s support of your father.’

Goldstone emails Trump Jr.: 

“Rob Goldstone, the British music publicist, emails Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., saying that Russian pop star Emin Agalarov had asked him to arrange a meeting in order to “provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.”

Goldstone says the documents came from a meeting between the “Crown prosecutor of Russia” and Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov, Emin’s father, and claims they are “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

Trump Jr. responds: 

“Trump Jr. responds to Goldstone’s email approximately 20 minutes later, writing: “if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

In this short subject line and email we have all the elements of an intention to collude with Russia.

So, clearly, Emin Agalarov has a story to tell and Mueller really wants to hear it-and is likely very interested in what part his father, Aras Agalarov, played. You wonder if he’s just a little ticked at this Dad for getting him mixed up in all this. He’s just a marginal talent who wants to be a popstar and now he’s the subject of all this international political intrigue.

Of course, last week the story broke that Michael Cohen now, in contradiction to what he testified to Congress, states that Don Jr told his father about the meeting beforehand which is what you logically had to assume all along.

Here is how Ike Kaveladze, the Agalarov representative at the meeting testified before the House Intelligence Committee.

Kaveladze emails Agalarov associate: 

“At some point before the meeting, Ike Kaveladze, who was the Agalarov representative at the meeting, told the House Intelligence Committee that he emailed Roman Beniaminov, an associate of Agalarov in the US, to ask about the purpose of the meeting. The specific date is not known, but Kaveladze testified Beniaminov wrote that he “believed the scheduled meeting at Trump Tower was about providing negative information on candidate Clinton to the Trump campaign,” according to the Republican House Intelligence Committee report.”

More confirmation about the subject of the meeting-dirt on Hillary Clinton. As for adoptions and the Magnitsky Act-that was the subject of the meeting for the Russians.

June 9, 2016

Russians huddle before the meeting:

“The Russian group meets for lunch before the meeting, in which Veselnitskaya shares a document with a synopsis of what she will discuss. The summary contains much of the same information as a similar document reportedly shared with Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, according to the House Intelligence Republican report.”

Yuri Chaika, whose meeting with the senior Agalarov facilitated the entire meeting. So looking at the 30,000 foot view what you see is that this may have been a meeting set up by Donald Trump and Aras Agalarov but where they sent out their bumbling sons-Don Jr and Emin Agalarov-to do the leg work. We know about what Aras did to set it up on his end, we don’t know much about what Trump might have done on his end, though Cohen is now providing us clues.

FN: Cohen went on to tell both Mueller-and Congress-that he believed he heard Trump and Don Jr discussing the Trump Tower Russia meeting of June 9, 2016 a few days prior and that Trump Sr had a very dim view of his namesake son’s abilities-Cohen argues that Jr told his Dad who then directed him to take Manafort and Kushner along to make sure he doesn’t screw up.

More Senate Judiciary Committee testimony:

“Veselnitskaya briefly mentions information about an alleged Russian tax fraud scheme involving Ziff Brothers Investments and British investor William Browder that was connected to Democrats, but it wasn’t the dirt that was expected.”

Actually this sounds like the dirt Putin himself trotted out at the recent #TreasonSummit in Helsinki. He’d-falsely-claimed that Clinton received $400 million dollars in donations from Browder’s business partners.

Back to CNN:

Akhmetshin told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Trump Jr. asked, “So can you show us how does this money go to Hillary?” and he requested proof or paperwork that she did not have.”

Of course, because this is a Putin urban legend and there is no paperwork to prove it.

“Trump Jr. explained the meeting this way his House Intelligence Committee testimony:

MR. SCHIFF: Right. How much of the time was spent discussing that [the Magnitsky Act], and how much of the time was spent discussing dirt on Secretary Clinton?

MR. TRUMP JR.: Again, the majority was really split up between — really started off as Russian adoption, which was sort of the, you know, what I perceive to be sort of the feelgood segue to probably lobbying for something as it related to that Act. So, you know, I’d say we spent less than, you know, 5 minutes of the 20 minutes, again, speaking through a translator about the quote/unquote “dirt”, and the rest was a quick segue, bait-and-switch, whatever you want to call it, to speak about Russian adoption and the Magnitsky Act.

“According to attendees, Trump Jr. asked for the incriminating information on Clinton but did not receive it.”

But again, note how wether or not the dirt was provided-clearly Putin thinks it’s great dirt which is why he used it at Helsinki-the clear intent on the part of the Don Jr and the Trump campaign couldn’t be more clear.

MR. SCHIFF: And do you recall Don Jr. asking whether Veselnitskaya had anything on Hillary Clinton?

MR. KAVELADZE: Yes.

Again, that’s clear intent. If I go to see a drug dealer and ask for white power and then he gives me stuff I consider trash, I’m still dead to rights incriminated in a court of law.

FN: Although as it turns out per the Mueller Report not if your Dad is the illegitimate ‘President.’

Goldstone apologizes to Trump Jr.: 

“After the meeting concludes, Goldstone testified that he apologized to Trump Jr. for the “bait-and-switch,” according to the House Intelligence GOP report.”

Again, Goldstone, can’t defend himself by saying it was bait and switch-he believed the dirt would be given, so his intent is shown. In any case, it seems the meeting was less ‘bait and switch’ than quid pro quo.

The Russians give them dirt on Clinton-and interfere on a large scale to hurt her campaign and help Trump-and Trump commits to lots of policy concessions first at the RNC convention and now as ‘President.’ It’s a quid pro quo there is every reason to believe is still going on based on what we saw in Helsinki-Dan Coates admitted yesterday to still not knowing what was said in the private Trump-Putin powwow.

Maybe not directly in that meeting but if nothing else it established for the Russians that they were willing to collude on interference.

Back to the Agalrovs:

Calling the Agalarovs:

Kaveladze leaves the bar after a few minutes to take a call from Agalarov to discuss the meeting, according to the Democratic report. He tells Agalarov that the meeting was a “complete loss of time and about nothing,” according to the GOP report.

Goldstone also spoke to Emin Agalarov after the meeting, he told the Senate Judiciary panel, and said he told him it was “the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever asked me to do. I’ve just sat in a meeting about adoption.”

He said Agalarov replied: “Adoption?” — which could imply Agalarov didn’t anticipate that to be the topic of the meeting.

Another call to blocked number:

“Two hours after the meeting, Trump Jr. places another call to a blocked number, according to the Democratic Senate Judiciary memo.”

Be that all as it may, the next day, June 10, Aras Agalarov sends Donald Trump an expensive birthday gift. Again, as I suggested above, it’d make sense to think of this meeting as being facilitated by Trump and Aras Agalarov where they send out their clueless sons to do the legwork.

Then on June 14, Rob Goldstone emails Emin Agalarov about the hacking of the DNC:

Goldstone sends along ‘eerily weird’ news:

“Five days after the Trump Tower meeting, there were news reports that Russians were behind the hacks of the Democratic National Committee emails.”

Goldstone sends a news article on the hacking to Emin Agalarov and Kaveladze, according to the Democratic report, and states: 

“Top story right now — seems eerily weird based on our Trump meeting last week with the Russian lawyers etc.”

Yes based on Mueller’s recent indictments, it’s clear that investigators also have found the conjunction of the Trump Tower meeting and the Russian hacks of the DNC eerily weird.

UPDATE: In the end though it Mueller didn’t interview Agalarov, much less Agalarov Sr-who is likely the real key for really understanding the meeting’s eytmology. Emin’s attorney-Scott Balber who else?-had been negotiating with Mueller’s office but in late January 2019, Agalarov pulled out and cancelled a concert tour in the US.

Agalarov was set to launch a four-city US tour Saturday in New York. Looming over the impending engagement was the prospect of his being on US soil and subject to US law enforcement.

Agalarov attorney Scott Balber said talks broke down at the end of last week and the decision to cancel the tour was made Monday.

“It’s the only choice we had,” Balber said. “I’ve been endeavoring to engage with the special counsel’s office as well as various congressional committees and despite our best effort we haven’t been able to reach an agreement on the terms.”

Basically they wanted a promise Agalarov would not be indicted/arrested etc.

From the standpoint of investigators there’s a few reasons they might not have wanted to offer assurances.

The young pop star went one step further than his attorneys. He made it clear that US authorities weren’t willing to give assurances that he would be able to freely leave the country once he was here.

It’s difficult to discern exactly what that means, without hearing from the US government, which hasn’t offered any public comments. The gravest scenario for Agalarov is that prosecutors could have criminal charges prepared and he could be charged once he’s in the US.

Another possibility is that investigators want to subpoena Agalarov to testify before a grand jury or show up for a hearing on Capitol Hill before his scheduled departure. That would put him in an uncomfortable position and force him to testify without any pre-negotiated restrictions — precisely what his lawyers have been trying to avoid. (To be clear, Agalarov himself says he is “ready to sit down and do any interview with anybody,” but his lawyers see it differently.)

It’s also possible that investigators simply didn’t want to make any promises. If he spoke with investigators and lied during the interview, he could be charged with federal crimes, preventing him from leaving the country. Agalarov has said all along that he didn’t do anything wrong.

The closest Agalarov ever got to an interview with Mueller-or Congress-was the interview he did with CNN-from the link above-after his announcement he wouldn’t be coming to the US.

Again as I argued above the key to the eytomology of the meeting is Emin’s father. CNN broaches this with him and Emin does say that his father set it up at someone’s request.

CNN: And you’ve said about that meeting that someone asked your dad to set that up, but you don’t know who. Have you found out anything since then about who asked him to set that up?”

Ok so this is progress someone asked Aras Agalarov to set it up. The followup question is: who is that someone but Emin says he doesn’t know and hasn’t spoken with his father about recently. CNN follows up with a pretty good question: isn’t he just a little curious about who this someone is?

Emin, however, claims not to care.

AGALAROV: No and I don’t even care. I know that the outcome of the meeting was completely pointless, so obviously that’s something investigators should be finding out and this is as much as I know and this is as much as I’m willing to share.”

Considering this meeting has been at the eye of the storm you’d think he’d be a little more curious. Mueller’s decision not to charge Don Jr based on the premise that ignorance is not an excuse and that the oppo offered isn’t worth more than $2,000 grand is at least subject to question. But beyond that we can’t even begin to say conclusively what this meeting was about-much that the outcome was totally pointless until we figure out the  real etymology.

Maybe the intel that Adam Schiff has at least begun obtaining might shed some light on it…

As CNN says there seems to be more than a little willful ignorance going on.

In a email to Trump Jr., Goldstone wrote: “Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.”

There isn’t any “Crown prosecutor” in Russia. But the Russian lawyer who attended the meeting at Trump Tower, Natalia Veselnitskaya, has close ties with Prosecutor General of Russia Yuri Chaika. In public interviews last year, Goldstone said that “Crown prosecutor” was a reference to Veselnitskaya.

Emin says he doesn’t know who Goldstone was talking about. This might be some willful ignorance — maybe Emin doesn’t want to know who asked his father to arrange the Trump Tower meeting. If he doesn’t know, he dodges questions like these in media interviews, and he’s been asked plenty of times. In the CNN interview, Emin seemingly acknowledges talking to his dad about this topic, but says “we haven’t had a conversation about it recently.”

If the phrase is a reference to Chaika, it would put the Kremlin’s fingerprints even more directly on the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting. Chaika is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. And while the Trump Tower meeting went down in New York City, Putin was overseeing a wide-ranging operation to interfere in the 2016 election and help Trump win, according to the US intelligence community.”

FWIW-and IMO it’s not worth much-Agalarov declares the very idea of election interference as ridiculous and ‘unpossible.’

“But the idea of election interference isn’t as “ridiculous” as Agalarov says. People vote, of course. But influence campaigns — like the one in 2016 — are real, as the US intelligence community says, and can have an impact on how voters think and act.”

So the Mueller Report doesn’t tell us about the etymology of the Mueller Report either-who or what led Aras Agalarov to set it up in the first place-was it the Prosecutor General of Russia Yuri Chaika?

What the Mueller Report does talk about is the Agalarovs’ campaign to get close to Trump in the next few years post the Moscow beauty pageant of 2013 prior to 2016.

Hopefully the House Democrats will discuss this crucial issue of the etymology of the Trump Tower Treason meeting of June 9, 2016.