The only thing described accurately in emails to Donald Trump Jr. on his talks with a Russian lawyer last year is the fact that they were organized by Emin Agalarov, while its “purpose and understanding” are utterly false, Agalarov’s attorney told RT.
The full printout of the June 2016 emails from Rob Goldstone related to a meeting with a Russian lawyer arranged by Russian pop singer and businessman Emin Agalarov was released on Tuesday by Donald Trump Jr., following several days of claims in the media that the talks were “proof” of alleged Trump-Russia collusion.
“The vast majority of what Rob Goldstone said in email exchange with Donald Trump Jr. is not accurate,” Agalarov’s family attorney, Scott Balber, told RT. “The only thing that’s true is that Emin asked the meeting to be arranged. The rest of it is not true, it’s false.”
According to the released emails, Goldstone promised to arrange a meeting with attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, claiming that she would provide information on Hillary Clinton’s illicit “dealings with Russia,” obtained by Emin’s father, Russian businessman Aras Agalarov, from some sort of a “crown prosecutor of Russia.”
The meeting however turned out to be way less thrilling, as Veselnitskaya did not have any information on that matter and talked about the Magnitsky Act, according to Donald Trump Jr., who described the talks as a “wasted 20 minutes.”
The Magnitsky Act is a 2012 law that allows allowing the United States to seize assets from a number of alleged Russian human rights abusers, as well as bar them from entering the country. Russia retaliated by prohibiting American families to adopt Russian children.
Balber stated that Goldstone had misled Trump Jr. over the meeting’s purpose for some reason, stating that his client arranged it to discuss the Magnitsky Act from the very beginning and denying all the other claims made by Goldstone in the emails.
“It is not true that Alar Agalarov had a meeting with Russian prosecutors about the campaign. It is not true that Natalya is a lawyer for the Russian Federation government, we understand that she’s a private practitioner, who represents private clients,” Balber said. “It is not true that our understanding was that the purpose of the meeting was to talk about the campaign, our understanding was only that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Magnitsky Act, which is an issue that we understand Natalya has been pursuing and interested in for some time.”
The Agalarov family attorney has confirmed that Agalarov Jr. and Goldstone had business together related to Emin’s musical career.
“Rob Goldstone was a publicist, a promoter for Emin’s musical career. So, they certainly had a relationship in that regard,” Balber said, adding that arranging a meeting about some top-secret information, allegedly coming from the Russian government, was obviously out of Golldstone’s competence.
“Rob Goldstone is an entertainment industry publicist. So, I think it’s fair to say that he was out of his alignment in making these communications. And what he said … is not true.”