Dangling Don Jr

Don Jr. says that he really had no idea what the meeting was about or more importantly who would attend the meeting in advance. In other words, someone said he might have dirt on Hillary, why not take a meeting?

This (no doubt intentionally) leaves out critical information that is in the plain text of the emails. In his emails Goldstone very conspicuously noted that this wasn’t just some information he could pass Trump’s way. He went out of his way to say explicitly that it came from the Russian government and was part of the Russian government’s support for and efforts to elect Donald Trump. He wrote: “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

That makes all the difference in the world.

The specific identity of just who Trump was going to meet with is beside the point. The name would have meant nothing to him. The relevant point is that Trump Jr was told in advance that he was dealing with the Russian government and that the Russian government was supporting and trying to elect his father. I don’t care how naive you are. Unless you were raised by ferrets in the Catskills, you’re going to know this is a problem. Trump Jr took the meeting. This is the critical omission. My recollection is that Don Jr also forwarded those emails to Kushner and Manafort. So they knew that information too, or could have. We will return to the significance of this in a moment.

The next key is that Don Jr. says his phone records show “three very short phone calls” between Don Jr. and Emin Agalarov (the pop star son of the oligarch) over the two days (June 6th and 7th) just prior to the meeting on June 9th. He says he doesn’t remember those calls and that they may have traded voicemails. That seems dubious. Voicemails leave recordings and records. I’m not sure if the phone records reflect when a call goes to voice mail or not. But how short were the calls? This seems quite significant. Why are we hearing this? Almost certainly because you can’t hide the records that the phone calls happened. I don’t think investigators even need a warrant for those. What was discussed if anything was is another matter. There may be no record of that at all. So Don Jr. would be in the clear saying he didn’t remember.

Don Jr. also says that Jared Kushner left not long after the meeting began. What about Paul Manafort? As I wrote earlier, Kushner was not an experienced professional either in politics or intelligence work. Don Jr. is a buffoon. I’m willing to believe that they didn’t get the full significance of what was happening in this meeting. That doesn’t apply to Manafort. He’s been in politics for four decades. His foreign work – even if you assume zero bad acts of any sort – would routinely bring him into contact with spies, both American and foreign ones. That’s how it works. There’s no question Manafort knew what was happening in this meeting and that it was a problem. When did he leave? What did he do and say? Big questions.

Don Jr. also says he has no recollection that any dossier was left in the office or given to him. Again, dubious. But is there proof?

Let’s assume for the moment that the meeting went down more or less as described. Many intelligence professionals have noted that this looks like a classic ‘dangle’. The Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, wasn’t there to do business or share information. She was there to test the campaign’s openness to doing business with the Russian government. Once Don Jr. and his colleagues showed they were very interested, her job was done. She is involved in the Magnitsky law lobbying. So she may have taken the opportunity to chat him up about that too. The point is that, as described, there’s nothing mysterious about the description of the meeting. Intelligence professionals say this is a standard gambit. The very specific reference to Russian government support in the original Goldstone email is likely part of the dangle. It’s too conspicuous and otherwise inexplicable.

Donald Trump Jr. told Senate judiciary committee staffers Thursday that he did not recall the details of White House involvement in the public response to his 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer and did not know much about the Air Force One meeting that allegedly led to the production of the statement, sources told CNN.

Trump Jr. was explicitly asked whether he either took any of the Russian participants in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting to see his father -- now President Donald Trump -- or whether he told his father about the meeting after, sources said. He insisted he did neither. 

Asked why his father promised the next day that dirt was coming on Hillary Clinton, Trump Jr. told Senate staffers that's just the way his father talks.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has approached the White House about interviewing staffers who were aboard Air Force One when the initial misleading statement about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower was crafted, three sources familiar with the conversations said.

The special counsel's discussions with the White House are the latest indication that Mueller's investigators are interested in the response to the Trump Tower meeting. Mueller wants to know how the statement aboard Air Force One was put together, whether information was intentionally left out and who was involved, two of the sources said.
Mueller's questions could go to the issue of intent and possible efforts to conceal information during an obstruction of justice investigation. The answers to Mueller's questions also could illuminate the level of anxiety surrounding the meeting and the decision-making that followed.

The interviews with White House staffers who were aboard Air Force One have not begun, the sources said. They currently involve only a small number of people, but the sources cautioned that number could increase. At this time, Mueller has not asked to interview President Trump. Trump Jr. was on the Hill Thursday for an interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee.