The Bury man who has been at the centre of an international storm after brokering a meeting between Donald Trump Jr and a Russian lawyer says there have been a “mountain of misconceptions” about the incident.

The US President’s son has released emails showing that in the run-up to American election he met the lawyer, who he thought was offering damaging material on Hillary Clinton.

Former Manchester journalist Rob Goldstone, who was raised in Whitefield , and worked for the Radcliffe Times, arranged the meeting.

Mr Goldstone has now told the M.E.N.: “I am waiting to release an official statement hopefully today which I believe will clear up the mountain of misconceptions and comments about these emails.”

After leaving Greater Manchester, Mr Goldstone worked for the Birmingham Evening Mail and in radio.

In this country he was known for his impressive ability as a reporter, off-the-wall sense of humour and obsession with tennis.

He later became a music publicist based in New York, and at one time was working for superstar Michael Jackson during his 1986 Australian tour.

He now runs a PR company, Oui 2 Entertainment.

(Image: Twitter)

Currently on holiday in Greece, he is at the centre of controversy after reports he had arranged a meeting between Donald Trump Jr and Natalia Veselnitskaya who apparently promised damaging material about Hillary Clinton during last year’s presidential campaign.

Mr Goldstone manages Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, whose father, Aras, is a Moscow-based real estate developer who was Mr Trump’s business partner in taking the Miss Universe competition to Moscow in 2013.

Last year he organised Emin’s European tour which included a performance at Manchester’s Band on The Wall.

In 2013, Mr Trump featured in a music video by Emin with that year’s Miss Universe contestants.

Mr Goldstone arranged the meeting between Trump Jr and Ms Veselnitskaya on June 9th 2016, two weeks after Mr Trump had secured the Republican nomination.

Ms Veselnitskaya had promised damaging information on his father’s Democratic rival. But that, according to Mr Trump Jr, did not materialise.

According to the New York Times, the offer by Ms Veselnitskaya was part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s election campaign, and that information was sent in an email by Mr Goldstone to Mr Trump Jr.

US officials are currently investigating alleged Russian meddling in the US election.

On Facebook last year Mr Goldstone posted that he checked in at Trump Tower on June 9th of last year with the caption “preparing for a meeting.”

The New York Times reported Sunday that the meeting, which also was attended by Trump’s then-campaign chair Paul Manafort and now-White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, was arranged on the premise that Veselnitskaya would provide damaging information on soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.