The Senate Judiciary Committee released 2,500 pages of transcripts and documents about a June 19, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer. Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort attended in hopes of leaving with dirt on failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Turns out they didn’t get what they wanted. The left has also received nothing since they hoped this would help prove collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Publicist and music promoter Rob Goldstone “arranged the meeting at the request of pop singer Emin Agalarov,” who told Trump, Jr., what they may receive. Trump, Jr., replied, “[I]f it’s what you say I love it.”

Goldstone explained to the committee that he hoped Russian lawyer Natalia Vaselnitskaya wielded a “smoking gun” for the campaign:

“I just sent somebody an email that says I’m setting up a meeting for someone that is going to bring you damaging information about somebody who was running to become the President of the United States,” said Goldstone in the transcript. “I thought that was worthy of the words ‘smoking gun,’ yes.”

This isn’t new at all. Politics is a dirty business and all candidates do their best to smear their opponent. Look at the infamous dossier from Christopher Steele!

Of course Trump, Jr., salivated at the prospect of holding dirt on Hillary.

But at the meeting, “Veselnitskaya wanted to talk about U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia under Magnitsky Act.” According to Trump, Jr., she only handed over “something about individuals connected to Russia supporting or funding Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton or the Democratic National Committee.”

You can even see this in the notes Manafort took of the meeting. The whole purpose of the meeting was to slime Bill Browder to attack the Magnitsky Act (same w/ the mention of Russian adoptions). Goldstone’s promise of Hillary dirt was just a ruse to get the meeting. pic.twitter.com/XpNUT3wHIj — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 16, 2018

Trump, Jr., lost interest:

At that point, according to testimony from Rinat Akmetshin (not at all a fan of Team Trump), Donald Trump, Jr., “instantly lost interest.” pic.twitter.com/6xbCffCYMg — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 16, 2018

Davis also tweeted that two of the Russian-connected people at the meeting had connections to Hillary:

A fun aside: two of the Russia-connected people in that meeting were quite close with Team Clinton. Rinat Akmetshin is BFFs with Ed Lieberman, whose wife was a long-time Clinton WH staffer, and Ike Kaveldze and his whole family voted for Hillary. — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 16, 2018

After the meeting ended, Goldstone apologized profusely to Trump, Jr., “for what he believed was wasting our time.” Officials asked if Goldstone tricked him into the meeting under “false pretenses,” Trump, Jr., said, “I imagine there was an element of showmanship involved, yes.”

Goldstone lashed out at Agalarov and said the meeting “was the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever asked me to do. I’ve just sat in a meeting about adoption.”

I’m seeing the media brush aside these facts and concentrate on Trump, Jr.’s, statement that he doesn’t remember if he told his father about the meeting. Considering the meeting shows nothing significant happened, WHO CARES?

Of course the Democrats won’t accept the fact that there’s nothing here:

Democrats on the committee released a statement arguing the interviews “reveal that top Trump campaign officials were frustrated and angry that the meeting did not produce enough damaging information on their opponent. Their efforts to conceal the meeting and its true purpose are consistent with a larger pattern of false statements about the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia.” There was no dirt disclosed in the meeting, instead Veselnitskaya wanted to talk about U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia under Magnitsky Act.

Keep stretching, bros.

Republicans on the Hill have shown concern over the meeting since at the same time, Veselnitskaya worked with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, which is the firm that published the dossier. Simpson claims he had no idea the meeting occurred and it “stunned” him when he found out.

STUNNED, I TELL YOU.

Donald Trump Jr.’s interview on 2016 Trump Tower meeting by Washington Examiner on Scribd

[Featured image via Wikimedia, YouTube]



