Publicist Rob Goldstone Talks Trump Tower Meeting

He helped them out the door with an email drawing the attention of Donald Trump Jr., promising the future president's son that "the Russian Crown Prosecutor had information to share that would compromise Hillary Clinton" and his relations with Russia. "

But after what Goldstone had thought, it was a boring presentation and some vague remarks about fundraising for Democrats in Russia, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya changed the subject. She stopped talking about presidential politics and started talking about US-Russian adoption policy.

"It was one of the most embarrassing meetings I've ever had – and I've installed it," recalls Goldstone, who apologizes, at the end of the match.

Related: Russian pop star Emin Agalarov denies offering Trump prostitutes, influencing elections

Rob Goldstone: The music publicist mixed with the saga Trump-Russia

Previously: Donald Trump Jr. said he met Russians for information on Clinton

The Trump Tower meeting of June 9, 2016 fueled suspicions that the Russians have mingled with the presidential election that sent Donald Trump to the White House and was scrupulously scrutinized by three congressional committees, a big one. Federal jury and a special advocate Robert Mueller.

Three years later, Goldstone's role in the Trump Tower meeting put him on the front page of newspapers around the world and made him a subject of fascination, speculation and even ridicule.

Emin Agalarov

And it all started with a phone call from a Russian pop singer and a 137-word email that Goldstone typed on his iPhone in just two or three minutes.

The pop singer was Emin Agalarov, who hired Goldstone as his manager and publicist. Agalarov's father, Aras, is a self-taught oligarch and a billionaire developer often compared to Trump. The Agalarov had become friends with Trump and often called Goldstone to play the role of intermediary.

Emin Agalarov phoned Goldstone on the morning of June 3, 2016 and asked him to meet with the Trumps. The singer said his father had met earlier in the day in Moscow a "well-connected" Russian lawyer who had potentially damaging information about the Russians' questionable fund-raising to support the Democrats and, by extension, Clinton.

Goldstone said he had pressed Agalarov for more details, but the crooner would only say that the lawyer was "well connected".

Agalarov wore black leather, drove an inflated moped and wanted to be the next Elvis Presley, having spent his teenage years living great and dreaming in the streets of his adopted city, Tenafly.

Agalarov became a star – at least in Russia, where Trump won his Miss Universe contest in 2013. It's there that Trump appeared in Agalarov's music video for the song "In Another Life", delivering his signature: "You are fired."

The email

Goldstone had met Donald Trump Jr. only twice and Donald Trump only six times, so he was reluctant to ask for a favor that had not directly benefited Agalarov. But against his better judgment, he stated that he had sent the email to Trump Jr., taking the meager details provided by Agalarov and filling in the blanks in the same way that he had often promoted his famous clients. .

In his email, the Russian lawyer became "the Russian Crown Prosecutor" – a term that would fuel speculation. Prosecutors in Russia are not called "Crown Attorneys", but once the courier became public, many people assumed that he was referring to Yuri Chaika, who carries the title of "Attorney General of the Russian Federation ".

"The words I used literally sent everyone into a group," Goldstone said. He was just trying to get the lawyer to understand its importance, he said, so he used the title he had been taught to call prosecutors in England.

Further details of Goldstone's email would also stir up suspicion. The Russian lawyer, he wrote, had offered to provide the Trump campaign with "official documents and information" that would incriminate Clinton. "This is obviously sensitive information and very high level," he added, and "is part of the support of Russia and his government to Mr. Trump."

Goldstone said that he had just assumed that the lawyer would offer documents, even though Agalarov had never mentioned it. His description of the Russian lawyer's information as "very high-level and sensitive" was simply an "inflated" language, he said. His characterization of being part of the Russian government's support for Trump was nothing but flattery designed to attract the attention of Trump Jr.

It worked.

"If that's what you say, I love it," responded Trump Jr. immediately.

A private phone call between Trump Jr. and Emin Agalarov cemented the deal. The Trump Tower meeting was open.

The consequences

Goldstone's life has been changed forever by the Trump Tower meeting. The celebrity had suddenly become a public curiosity, alternately mocked as a democratic plant whose real mission was to keep Trump out of the White House or as a Russian spy, Putin's puppet and "useful idiot" of the Russians.

The selfies of him posing in stupid hats were removed from his Facebook and Instagram pages and mocked by late-night comedians. When he posted a picture of himself wearing a T-shirt with "Russia" printed in large print on the front, some speculated that he was sending a secret message to Moscow.

The truth, he says, was much less sinister. "It was because it was okay," said Goldstone, who wrote a newspaper article on the travel difficulties for overweight people.

Goldstone suspects that his days as an entertainment publicist are over. Now, the journalists want to interview him. "I became the man I always hated about famous publicists who are more famous than their clients," he said.

Career side, he does not know what will follow. Maybe another book, he says. He sometimes dreams of taking another crack at this email that has changed everything.

"In fact, I'd like to go back, read those 137 words and go, 'Oh, forget that' and hit 'delete,'" he said. "Life would be very different."

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