Wow. What to make of this...

This is the new video by Trump's pal/associate/Russian performer Emin Agalarov (Rob Goldstone is his publicist):

A birthday gift

Well, what was the gift that they didn't want the Secret Service seeing it?  Let me guess:  Mueller knows. 

Has Rhona been interviewed?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Fun with Trump

This is the first of two excerpts adapted from Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump (Twelve Books), by Michael Isikoff, Chief Investigative Correspondent for Yahoo News, and David Corn, Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones. It will be released on March 13.

[...]

While in the Russian capital [Nov. 9, 2013], Trump was also scouting for new and grand business opportunities, having spent decades trying — but failing — to develop high-end projects in Moscow. Miss Universe staffers considered it an open secret that Trump’s true agenda in Moscow was not the show but his desire to do business there.

[...]

Once in Moscow, Trump received a private message from the Kremlin, delivered by Aras Agalarov, an oligarch close to Putin and Trump’s partner in hosting the Miss Universe event there: “Mr. Putin would like to meet Mr. Trump.” That excited Trump. The American developer thought there was a strong chance the Russian leader would attend the pageant. But as his time in Russia wore on, Trump heard nothing else. He became uneasy.

“Is Putin coming?” he kept asking.

[...]

Trump’s trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe contest was a pivotal moment. He had for years longed to develop a glittering Trump Tower in Moscow. With this visit, he would come near — so near — to striking that deal. He would be close to branding the Moscow skyline with his world-famous name and enhancing his own status as a sort of global oligarch.

During his time in Russia, Trump would demonstrate his affinity for the nation’s authoritarian leader with flattering and fawning tweets and remarks that were part of a long stretch of comments suggesting an admiration for Putin.

[...]

Trump’s brief trip to Moscow held clues to this mystery. His two days there would later become much discussed because of allegations that he engaged in weird sexual antics while in Russia — claims that were not confirmed. But this visit was significant because it revealed what motivated Trump the most: the opportunity to build more monuments to himself and to make more money. Trump realized that he could attain none of his dreams in Moscow without forging a bond with the former KGB lieutenant colonel who was now the president of Russia.

  Yahoo

Rewind to June 15, Los Angeles. Aras Agalarov and his pop star son Emin planned a big dinner at a restaurant in the Palazzo hotel and casino.

Much to their surprise, they received a call from Keith Schiller, Trump’s longtime security chief and confidant, informing them that his boss wanted to join their party. Sure, they said, please come.

[...]

After the dinner, part of the group headed to an after-party at a raunchy nightclub in the Palazzo mall called the Act. Shortly after midnight, the entourage arrived at the club. The group included Trump, Emin, [Rob] Goldstone, [the reigning Miss Universe, Olivia] Culpo, and Nana Meriwether, the outgoing Miss USA.

[...]

The Act was no ordinary nightclub. Since March, it had been the target of undercover surveillance by the Nevada Gaming Con­trol Board and investigators for the club’s landlord — the Palazzo, which was owned by GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson — after complaints about its performances. The club featured seminude women performing simulated sex acts of bestiality and grotesque sadomasochism — skits that a few months later would prompt a Nevada state judge to issue an injunction barring any more of its “lewd” and “offensive” performances. Among the club’s regular acts cited by the judge was one called “Hot for Teacher,” in which naked college girls simulate urinating on a professor. In another act, two women disrobe and then “one female stands over the other female and simulates urinating while the other female catches the urine in two wine glasses.”

Hmmmm. Maybe that's where Old Lard Ass got hooked on the idea of golden showers.

(The Act shut down after the judge’s ruling. There is no public record of which skits were performed the night Trump was present.)

Oh, OK. But there is a list of people who might be able to tell us. Goldstone likes to talk.

Back to November when Trump flew to Moscow for the big Miss Universe event.

Trump was soon whisked to a gala lunch at one of the two Moscow branches of Nobu, the famous sushi restaurant. [...] An assortment of Russian businessmen was there, including Herman Gref, the chief executive of Sberbank, a Russian state-owned bank and one of the co-sponsors of the Miss Universe pageant.

Trump was treated with much reverence. He gave a brief wel­coming talk. “Ask me a question,” he told the crowd. The first query was about the European debt crisis and the impact that the financial woes of Greece would have on it. “Interesting,” Trump replied. “Have any of you ever seen ‘The Apprentice’?” Trump spoke at length about his hit television show, repeatedly noting what a tre­mendous success it was.

[...]

Trump next went to the theater in Crocus City Hall. It was the day before the show. This was Trump’s chance to review the con­testants and exercise an option he always retained under the rules of his pageants: to overrule the selection of judges and pick the con­testants he wanted among the finalists. In short, no woman was a finalist until Trump said so.

I'm surprised in this day and age we still have beauty contests, but I would have assumed there was some sort of fix on them. Still, that Trump himself got to make the finalist decisions - why would any contestant waste time doing the beauty pageant routine? Why not just get a date with Old Lard Ass?

At each pageant, Miss Universe staffers would set up a special room for Trump backstage. It had to conform to his precise require­ments. He needed his favorite snacks: Nutter Butters and white Tic Tacs. And Diet Coke. There could be no distracting pictures on the wall. The room had to be immaculate. He required unscented soap and hand towels — rolled, not folded.

In this room would be videos of the finalists who had been selected days earlier in a preliminary competition and the other contestants, particularly footage of the women in gowns and swim­ suits. Here, a day or two before the final telecast, Trump would review the judges’ decisions.

[...]

“If there were too many of women of color, he would make changes,” a Miss Universe staffer later noted. Another Miss Universe staffer recalled, “He often thought a woman was too ethnic or too dark-skinned. He had a particular type of woman he thought was a winner. Others were too ethnic. He liked a type. There was Olivia Culpo, Dayanara Torres [the 1993 winner], and, no surprise, East European women.” On occasion, according to this staffer, Trump would reject a woman “who had snubbed his advances.”

[...]

“If he didn’t like a woman because she looked too ethnic, you could sometimes persuade him by telling him she was a princess and married to a football player,” a staffer later explained.

Jesus Christ.

After the event, there was a rowdy after-party with lots of vodka and loud music. A 26-year-old aspiring actress, Edita Shaumyan, made her way into the VIP section, entering the roped-off area at the same time as a famous Russian rap singer named Timati. Shaumyan caught Trump’s eye. He approached her, gestured to Timati, and asked, “Wait, is this your boyfriend? You’re not free?” She said no, she wasn’t there with Timati. “You’re beautiful,” Trump told her. “Wow, your eyes, your eyes.” According to Shaumyan, “He said, ‘Let’s go to America. Come with me to America.’ And I said, ‘No, no, no. I’m an Armenian. We’re very strict. You need to meet my mother first.’”

I doubt if Mama Shaumyan would approve of a man on his third marriage and fifth child.

Trump later had somebody give Shaumyan his business card with his phone number on it. She never called.

Sad!

And shortly after the Miss Universe event, Agalarov’s daughter showed up at the Miss Universe office in New York City bearing a gift for Trump from Putin. It was a black lacquered box. Inside was a sealed letter from the Russian autocrat. What the letter said has never been revealed.

Let me guess. There was no gift from Putin, nor any letter from him. More hype.

[In 2014] the Obama administration and the European Union imposed tough sanctions on Russia in response to Putin’s annexation of Crimea and his military intervention in Ukraine. It would be a kick to Russia’s already faltering economy, struggling because of the plummeting price of oil. And one round of sanctions imposed by the EU targeted Russian banks in which the Russian government held a majority interest — that included Sberbank, which had agreed to finance the Trump deal. Its access to capital was now hindered.

In this environment, the plans for the Trump Tower in Moscow crumbled.

Another, very big, reason for Trump to hate Obama.

According to the Trump Organization, Ivanka Trump, after touring Moscow with Emin, killed the deal for business reasons. But Rob Goldstone suspected that the demise of Trump’s project with the Agalarovs influenced Trump’s view of sanctions: “They had interrupted a business deal that Trump was keenly interested in.”

Goldstone speaks

Word has it that "fugitive" Rob Goldstone (the man who set up the infamous Junior meeting in Trump Tower] will be coming to the US to talk with Mueller's investigators. Apparently, he'd like to get something out in the court of public opinion first.

Rob Goldstone, the music publicist who helped arrange the June, 2016 Trump Tower meeting between the Trump campaign and a Russian lawyer and lobbyist has broken his silence in an interview with Philip Sherwell in the Sunday Times of London.

[...]

"First of all, if Russian intelligence had used me in some way, as people perceive, but which I don't believe, then they'll know I don't know anything. If Russian intelligence hasn't used me, but are intelligent, they will equally know I don't know anything and this is all nonsense."

[...]

He says client Emin Agalarov, a Russian singer and the son of an oligarch, called him wanting him to arrange the meeting. He "puffed up" the language Agalarov gave him and sent it in a message to Trump Jr.

[...]

"I could have said that the Russian attorney believes she found a black hole, or believes Santa is real, it didn't really matter. So when he replied, 'If it's what you say it is, I love it,' I just thought my teaser had worked."

[...]

"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. Neither of us have any experience in this world."

  Axios

Trying to help cover Agalarov's ass, too?

"So when people ask why some music publicist was involved in all this, well, I was always the conduit, the Mr Go-To, between the Agalarovs and the Trumps."

That might be an admission I wouldn't have made.

"I believe [Trump Jr.] acted like a son and not like someone who was versed in the world of politics. The campaign chairman, Manafort, was sitting there, so shouldn't he have said to him, 'We can't have this meeting'? Should Don Jr have sent this over to the FBI when I sent the email? And should they have said to me, 'Who is this woman and what did she know?' Yes, probably.

Not "probably". Instead, they convened a group of a dozen or more people to get the dirt they thought was coming.

So, you know what, I think he has already apologized. And I can apologize in some way for having sent the email in the first place.

Apologies don't usually prevent the law from taking action.  Or is he talking about apologizing to Trump Sr?

"I can't comment about the contents of the Steele dossier, but I can tell you that there were only a few hours during a very busy schedule when Trump was back in his room at the Ritz-Carlton," Goldstone, who was with Trump for most of the trip, says.

I don't imagine it takes long for prostitutes to pee on a bed.

Goldstone says he is writing a book. The title: "Useful Idiot: How an Email Trumped My Life".

Everybody gets paid, one way or another.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Scraps

There's a new Guardian article on the Russian collusion story. A lot is packed into it, so read it all, but I want to point out two things that stood out for me:

The Guardian previously revealed that Kaveladze’s partner in that operation was Boris Goldstein, a Soviet-born banker whose ties to former KGB officers attracted interest from US investigators after he moved to California in the early 1990s. In a remarkable coincidence, the US attorney in San Francisco whose office eventually declined to bring criminal charges over their alleged money laundering scheme was Robert Mueller, the special counsel now looking into Kaveladze’s reappearance.

  The Guardian

This constitutes my second recent concern from a published article about Mueller. (The first was a reminder that he was the FBI chief on 9/11 who steered agents away from investigating some important leads.) Perhaps there really wasn't enough evidence to support charges. Or perhaps there was something else up Mueller's sleeve that was in play. But this is a question that requires more investigation: why did Mueller decline to charge them? Or maybe the question is, why was Mueller picked to head the Russian collusion investigation?

Another point that's unimportant in the scheme of things, other than to point out just what a disgusting ass Trump is concerns another inappropriate remark on a woman's appearance:

In a dreary Vegas hotel banqueting hall, the beaming new business partners ate a celebratory dinner together. Video footage later obtained by CNN showed Trump at his most oleaginous. “What a beautiful mother you have,” he told Emin.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Junior's Troubles: Bread Crumbs Everywhere

Let's see the rest.

It's just more confirmation that Junior is lying his stupid ass off.  But it doesn't negate the already damning information.

Why are they lying about everything?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Dem Excitement Over Junior's Blunder

I don't mind seeing ANYbody in the Trump cabal landing in the hot seat, and even though I personally think there was indeed collusion to help Trump win the presidency, I don't think there will be any charge of treason for any of them. Although, that charge would be far and away more appropriate for the Trumps than it is for Edward Snowden, who was honestly trying to help his countrymen.

The June 3, 2016, email sent to Donald Trump Jr. could hardly have been more explicit: One of his father’s former Russian business partners had been contacted by a senior Russian government official and was offering to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton.

  NYT

Before the New York Times or anyone else goes any further into assessing the situation, we need to see that email.  And, lucky for us, Junior once again helps us out.  Here's page 4, which he posted separately "due to space constraints," and is where the meat is:

Junior released his emails, but did he make any "adjustments" to them?  That would be a stupid thing to do, as you have to assume someone will be checking on that.  But then, Junior is a stupid man.

“To everyone, in order to be totally transparent, I am releasing the entire email chain of my emails” about the June 9 meeting, he wrote. “I first wanted to just have a phone call but when that didn’t work out, they said the woman would be in New York and asked if I would meet.”

Does he think a phone call would be less problematic than a meeting?

And why in the world is Twitter now the place to handle serious political and legal issues?

We also now have refutation of Junior's statement that he invited Manafort and Kushner to the meeting without telling them what it was about.  That was a ridiculous claim on its face.  He doesn't seem bothered by the lies he told about this meeting, one after the other, each time he found out The Times knew better.  Reminds me of the Bush administration.

The documents “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” read the email, written by a trusted intermediary, who added, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

Now the question is, is that simply the "intermediary"'s (Goldstone) assessment of Russia's stance regarding Trump, or is that also the Trump team's understanding of Russia's stance? I think that could make a difference. Either way, is it true that Junior agreed to the meeting because he was expecting to get dirt on Clinton from a Russian government representative?

He replied within minutes: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

So, at least he was hoping it would be what Goldstone said it was. And he sees it as better timed to inflict the most damage to Clinton "later in the summer" when it might be too late for her to recover from it.

Four days later, after a flurry of emails, the intermediary wrote back, proposing a meeting in New York on Thursday with a “Russian government attorney.”

[...]

Donald Trump Jr. agreed, adding that he would most likely bring along “Paul Manafort (campaign boss)” and “my brother-in-law,” Jared Kushner, now one of the president’s closest White House advisers.

[...]

The story has unfolded as The Times has been able to confirm details of the meetings.

So that's how the Times is framing their drip, drip, drip.  I suspect they had all the information from the time they wrote their first story, but I don't mind them dragging it out.  Keeps it a hot item for a longer period of time.  We consumers of media do tend to move on quickly.

[I]n recent days, accounts by some of the central organizers of the meeting, including Donald Trump Jr., have evolved or have been contradicted by the written email records.

At any rate, we also now know what we suspected - that Goldstone was lying in his interview. I bet he's thrilled Junior released the emails.

Mr. Goldstone’s emails contradict statements he made in his interview with The Times on Monday, when he said that he did not know whether the elder Mr. Agalarov had any role in arranging the meeting, and that he had no knowledge of any official Russian government role in the offer to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Mrs. Clinton. Instead, he said that Ms. Veselnitskaya had contacted Emin directly, and that Emin had asked him to reach out to the Trumps as a favor to her.

[...]

Subsequent efforts to reach Mr. Goldstone, who acknowledged in the interview that he had spoken with someone at the Trump Organization over the weekend in anticipation of news media attention, have been unsuccessful.

He is lawyering up, no doubt.

Ms. Veselnitskaya, for her part, said in an statement to The Times sent this past weekend that “nothing at all about the presidential campaign” had been discussed at the Trump Tower meeting, adding that she had “never acted on behalf of the Russian government” and that she had “never discussed any of these matters with any representative of the Russian government.” She has not responded to requests for comment since.

We can't prove that Ms. Veselnitskaya is lying - until Junior, or somebody else with a tit in the wringer (perhaps Kushner or Manafort) cops to what was actually said at the meeting. We know the meeting occurred, and we know what the Trump cabal was expecting to hear (generally speaking), but we don't have irrefutable proof that is in fact what they talked about.

Back in Washington, both the White House and a spokesman for President Trump’s lawyer have taken pains to distance the president from the meeting, saying that he did he not attend it and that he learned about it only recently.

Sure, whatever.

Do what you want...you will anyway.

Make It Stop!

The following excerpted article looks to be saying that a private firm, Fusion GPS, was hired by various people to  1) get dope on what kompromat the Kremlin might have on Trump; and 2) get dope on a man named Bill Browder in an effort to help Russia neuter the Magnitsky Act which sanctions Russians accused of human rights abuses.  Or, as another article says:   Opposition Research Firm Behind Trump Dossier Worked On Pro-Kremlin Lobbying Effort

Fusion’s work on the two projects — one favorable to the Kremlin (Magnitsky) and the other unfavorable (the dossier) — has drawn attention from Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

  Daily Caller

I can see how it might.  It can also be argued that one project is favorable to Donald Trump and one unfavorable.  Apparently they are apolitical and will work for whoever pays them.  But it's interesting that their clients - with competing interests - are using the same company.  Is Fusion GPS the only game in town?*

The Republican has questioned why the FBI reportedly used an uncorroborated document financed by a Clinton ally as part of the basis for its investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.

Grassley has also asked the FBI about reports that the bureau informally agreed to pay Steele $50,000 to continue his research on Trump. That payment was reportedly never made, though it is unclear why. Both the FBI and Fusion GPS have avoided answering Grassley’s questions about the dossier.

I can see why they might.

In his letters to the FBI, Grassley has cited a complaint that [Bill] Browder [a  London-based businessman] filed with the Justice Department last July. In that document, Browder said that Fusion GPS was waging an opposition research campaign against him on behalf of a Russian businessman who was under investigation in the U.S. for money laundering [as part of an influence campaign aimed at neutering the Magnitsky Act].

[...]

Browder was the leading force behind the campaign to pass the Magnitsky Act, a move which angered Russian president Vladimir Putin.

[...]

Fusion GPS had been hired by the international law firm, BakerHostetler. The law firm was in turn was working for Denis Katsyv, the head of a Cyprus-based company called Prevezon Holdings.

Prevezon, Denis Katsyv’s company, was implicated in the money laundering scheme. Prevezon reached a $6 million settlement with the U.S. government in the case in May.

Browder tells TheDC that he will testify about Fusion GPS, Simpson, BakerHostetler lawyer Mark Cymrot, and Akhmetshin, the former Soviet agent who is now a Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist and consultant.

Akhmetshin was the lobbyist of record for a group formed last year called the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation (HRAGIF).

The organization’s official mission was to end the Russian adoption ban implemented by Putin. But in reality, HRAGIF used adoption as a dangle to compel U.S. lawmakers to revise the Magnitsky Act.

[...]

The anti-Magnitsky campaign took a new twist over the weekend after it was revealed that a Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya met on June 9, 2016 with Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

[...]

After The New York Times reported the existence of the meeting on Saturday, Trump’s legal team pointed to Veselnitskaya’s work on Magnitsky and that lobbying campaign’s links to Fusion GPS. A spokesman for Trump’s legal team suggested that the Russian lawyer could have sought to compromise the campaign.

It has since emerged that Trump Jr. was approached for the meeting by Rob Goldstone, a music publicist who works for Emin Agalarov, a Kazakh musician whose billionaire father is close to the Russian government.

Stop! Stop! Stop! I need pictures!

There's more. I'm not even going to attempt to put it together. My brain hurts.

Read it yourself.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

*UPDATE: More on Fusion GPS

Makes You Wonder

How long was Trump mulling a 2016 run for president and how long was he angling to get some help from Russia? Why did he hold the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow?

During the summer of 2013, Donald J. Trump mused about whether President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would meet him at the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow that fall. “If so, will he become my new best friend?” Mr. Trump posted on Twitter.

Mr. Putin did not make it, but the beauty competition in Moscow put the Trump family in touch with other people with connections to the Kremlin.

[...]

[Rob] Goldstone told The Washington Post that he had arranged the June 9, 2016, meeting with Donald Trump Jr. on behalf of a client and had attended it along with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. On Monday, Mr. Goldstone identified the client as Emin Agalarov, a pop star in Russia.

  NYT

Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Rob Goldstone...why do many of the people surrounding Donald Trump look like gangsters?

Mr. Goldstone, who did not respond to an email seeking comment, has worked with Mr. Agalarov, who along with his father, Aras, develops major real estate projects in Russia.

Aha. I was wondering why Agalarov would be involved in this business. Real estate deals - the money laundering, racketeering side of the Trump organization's business.

Mr. Trump, an owner of the Miss Universe pageant at the time, selected the Agalarovs to host the worldwide competition in 2013 in Moscow, and has discussed collaborating on a tower in Moscow with them. He also appeared in one of Emin’s music videos, which featured pageant contestants.

And here's another answer to my question of how long Trump was angling toward getting help from Russia for his 2016 run...

“I called it my weekend in Moscow,” said Mr. Trump, who had announced his candidacy for president a few months earlier. He added: “I was with the top-level people, both oligarchs and generals, and top of the government people. I can’t go further than that, but I will tell you that I met the top people, and the relationship was extraordinary.”

A braggart who will hang himself in the end.

The Agalarovs appear to have a good relationship with Mr. Putin. Shortly before the Miss Universe pageant, Mr. Putin presented Aras Agalarov with the Order of Honor, one of Russia’s highest civilian awards.

[...]

After Mr. Trump’s victory in the presidential election last fall, Mr. Goldstone and Emin Agalarov celebrated the results in separate social media posts, with Emin posting a photo of himself, his father, and Mr. Trump on Instagram with the message, “The sky is the limit! Congratulations Mr. President.”

Woohoo! The money tap is full open!

For nearly three decades before he became president, Mr. Trump sought business deals in Russia, chasing that goal with little success .

[...]

It was in the mid-2000s, as the Trumps aggressively sought to license the family name for international real estate projects, that they began coming to Moscow regularly.

[...]

[Felix] Sater [who continued to work with the Trump Organization even after it came to light that he had pleaded guilty to a role in a stock manipulation scheme involving Mafia figures and Russia criminals and has served as an American government informant,] worked on a plan for a Trump Tower in Moscow as recently as the fall of 2015, but he said that had come to a halt because of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.

More to come, I'm sure.

Burying Junior - Part 3

From a previous YWA post:

I'm going to assume that Mueller et al. are going to want to talk to Mr. Goldstone. How much money will it take to get him to commit perjury? And what tRump flunky can be trusted to arrange it? Or will that be done on the Russian side of the collusion?

Not enough money in all of Trumpdom, apparently. Goldman is singing before the official inquiries are even asked.

Doesn't change the fact that Junior went to the meeting hoping for dirt on Clinton. "General remarks regarding campaign funding." I'm sure the various investigations into Trump campaign collusion will be wanting details.

And, that's a lot of effort to go to for a meeting that "nothing came of" and "there was no follow up."  I'm not buying it.

Also, why is the musician Emin Agalarov involved? I have to say, it does kind of make this seem like a Mickey Mouse deal, but Veselnitzkaya is asking for a favor for the Russian government - that adoption ban and the Magnitzky Act were state concerns.  Why go through Agalarov to Junior with this supposed info about DNC campaign contributions?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.