The Trump legal team’s letter is a lot to digest. I’ve been reading and re-reading, and then doing more reading of testimony released by Congress.
The timeline surrounding the Trump Tower meeting response paints a very interesting picture. (Thread)
On July 6, 2017, an email from Rob Goldstone, who helped facilitate the meeting, to Alan Garten, chief legal officer for Trump Org, indicates that Trump’s team knew a story was coming on the meeting.
On July 7, Trump met with Putin at the G20. (As it has been reported, one of their conversations occurred without an American translator.) Here’s what Trump told NYT they discussed.
On July 8, we now know President Trump dictated the response regarding the Trump Tower meeting. Here’s that response, which Don Jr. gave to NYT.
And... per Goldstone’s messages to Emin Agalarov, the Russian “pop star” who helped set up the meeting, it appears as though Goldstone was in on the drafting of that initial statement.
On July 9, Don Jr. was forced to issue another statement, essentially amending his story about the Trump Tower meeting. He got called out for omitting a key detail: that the Russians had offered dirt on Clinton, and that’s why the meeting was set up. Here’s his 2nd response.
That same day, on July 9, Goldstone is told by Trump’s legal team that it’s best to stay quiet after the story has shifted. He relays the message to Agalarov.
Goldstone expresses nervousness about the impact of the news coverage. He tells Agalarov that it’s destroying his reputation. Here’s an interesting exchange between the two of them after Agalarov asks why.
Then, Agalarov and Goldstone imply that they’ve been talking about all of this to another attendee of the Trump Tower meeting — Ike Kaveladze. (Was he going along with the same story?)
On July 10, as the fallout continues, Goldstone tells Agalarov that Trump’s lawyers have drafted a statement that they want him to put out.
Per an email between Trump Jr.’s lawyer and Goldstone, Goldstone says he’ll run it by Agalarov. (The Russian who set up the meeting.)
Here is the the email between Goldstone and Alan Futerfas.
On July 11, Goldstone and Agalarov exchange a few more messages. They again discuss the need for “Ike” to help.
Then, the text chain goes dark until August 29. Agalarov reaches out and says he is finally cleared to talk to Goldstone again, though they can only speak about “non relative subjects.”
This timeline might explain why Mueller wants to ask Trump multiple questions about the response to the Trump Tower meeting.
FWIW, here are Paul Manafort’s notes from the meeting.
They do include words & names related to the Magnitsky Act- a topic related to Russian adoptions- but there are other fascinating notes that are still a bit of a mystery.
Value in Cyprus as inter -???
And, as @NatashaBertrand has pointed out, @Scaramucci sent an interesting email to Goldstone too. He stresses the importance of remaining consistent...
*August 19, not 29
Back to the timeline. On July 11, Don Jr tries to get ahead of more damning news, and he releases the whole email chain setting up the Trump Tower meeting.
Then, someone (redacted) asked Ike why Don Jr. would release emails admitting collusion.
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