Key moments in Senate documents
Trump Jr. in ‘Charge’
Rinat Akhmetshin, a lobbyist and former Soviet counter-intelligence officer, recalled that Trump Jr. led the meeting.
‘He was definitely in charge,’ he said. After small talk about the view and a recent win in the primaries, the younger Trump got down to business, Akhmetshin said. ‘Mr Trump, Jr., said, ‘So I believe you have some information for us.’
Akhmetshin said that Veselnitskaya, the Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer at the centre of the meeting, began discussing some wealthy contributors. Akhmetshin recalled, ‘So Mr Trump, Jr., said, ‘So can you show us how does this money go to Hillary? Like specifically, do you have paperwork? Or just indicate how money goes to Hillary. And she kind of said, ‘No. I am just a Russian lawyer.’
‘Sizeable birthday gift’ for Trump
The day after the Trump Tower meeting, Rob Goldstone, the British music promoter who arranged the meeting, said that Aras Agalarov, the founder of Crocus Group, one of Russia’s largest real-estate companies, and his pop-singer son Emin wanted to send a ‘sizeable birthday gift’ for the senior Trump to his offices.
In an email to Trump’s executive assistant Rhona Graff the next day, Goldstone said he ran into Trump’s bodyguard, who he identified as Keith. The bodyguard told Goldstone that any packages would have to go through ‘TSA-style scanning,’ Goldstone wrote.
Russia talk ‘eerily weird’
On June 14, just days after the meeting, Goldstone wrote to Emin Agalarov and Ike Kaveladze, a California businessman who was born in Russia. Goldstone said he was concerned that the press seemed to be focusing on Trump’s close ties to Russia, pointing out a Bloomberg story, ‘Trump’s Long Romance with Russia.’
‘Top Story right now’ Goldstone wrote, apparently referring to another story related to a hacking attack on Democratic National Committee. ‘Seems eerily weird based on our Trump meeting last week with the Russian lawyers etc.’
Goldstone promising ‘massive exposure’
The publicist who set up the meeting offered to arrange for Russia’s largest social network to promote Trump’s candidacy to more than 1.6 million Russian-American members of the network.
‘I can get massive exposure for Mr Trump on the site for sure — and it will be covered in Russian media also — where I noticed your campaign is covered positively almost daily — which (sic) extremely gracious comments from President Putin etc,’ Goldstone wrote.