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-- it was reported today that another person in the Trump Jr Russia-Clinton Confidential meeting was Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin. From an AP story: -- some of the issues may seem obscure. The two Magnitsky sanctions bills, the Magnitsky scandal, the Magnitsky-related trial in New York (settled by the DOJ under Sessions). In a nutshell, the scandal concerned money-laundering by Russian oligarchs, and corruption in the Russia system of justice. The "Russian Lawyer" was p

Links to and some details about the Magnitsky Affair ...

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-- it was reported today that another person in the Trump Jr Russia-Clinton Confidential meeting was Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin. From an AP story:

Quote

In his first public interview about the meeting, Akhmetshin said he accompanied Veselnitskaya to Trump Tower where they met an interpreter who participated in the meeting. He said he had learned about the meeting only that day when Veselnitskaya asked him to attend. He said he showed up in jeans and a T-shirt.

During the meeting, Akhmetshin said Veselnitskaya brought with her a plastic folder with printed-out documents that detailed what she believed was the flow of illicit funds to the Democratic National Committee. Veselnitskaya presented the contents of the documents to the Trump associates and suggested that making the information public could help the Trump campaign, he said.

“This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money,” Akhmetshin recalled her saying.

Trump Jr. asked the attorney if she had all the evidence to back up her claims, including whether she could demonstrate the flow of the money. But Veselnitskaya said the Trump campaign would need to research it more. After that, Trump Jr. lost interest, according to Akhmetshin.

“They couldn’t wait for the meeting to end,” he said.

Akhmetshin said he does not know if Veselnitskaya’s documents were provided by the Russian government. He said he thinks she left the materials with the Trump associates. It was unclear if she handed the documents to anyone in the room or simply left them behind, he said.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and current White House senior adviser, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting. Akhmetshin said he recognized Kushner and Trump Jr. He also said he recognized Manafort because they worked in “adjacent political circles” but never together.

He said there were others in the room but he didn’t know them. Publicist Rob Goldstone, who brokered the meeting via email with Trump Jr., has told the AP that he also participated in the meeting.

Asked about Akhmetshin’s participation in the meeting, Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni declined comment. A spokesman for Kushner did not respond to inquiries, nor did Trump Jr.’s attorney.

-- some of the issues may seem obscure. The two Magnitsky sanctions bills, the Magnitsky scandal, the Magnitsky-related trial in New York (settled by the DOJ under Sessions).

In a nutshell, the scandal concerned money-laundering by Russian oligarchs, and corruption in the Russia system of justice. The "Russian Lawyer" was part of the legal team that defended the corporate entity Prevezon against money-laundering charges.  The case was settled two days before the trial was to begin.

From Bloomberg:

Quote

Veselnitskaya was no stranger to U.S. officials at the time of the Trump Tower meeting in New York. She was a champion of an agenda dear to the Kremlin -- pressing to roll back the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law that branded 18 Russians as human-rights abusers. It was named for Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who worked for Browder’s Hermitage Capital Management and died in a Moscow prison after uncovering what he said was a tax fraud that diverted $230 million from Russian taxpayers into the pockets of a handful of civil servants.The 2012 law angered the Kremlin, which then prohibited most adoptions from Russia to the U.S., chilling relations between Washington and Moscow.

On another occasion, Veselnitskaya got taxpayers to foot a $1,000-a-night tab at New York’s Plaza Hotel, irking prosecutors in Manhattan pursuing a related tax case. She was also denied a U.S. visa, leading to what she called a humiliating strip search at Heathrow Airport in London.

Differing accounts have surfaced of what was discussed on June 9, 2016, when Veselnitskaya met with Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and the Trump presidential campaign manager, Paul Manafort. Trump Jr. and his lawyer have said Veselnitskaya talked about adoption issues and called her presentation “inane nonsense.” In a Monday night interview with NBC News that aired Tuesday, Veselnitskaya brushed aside any notion that she worked for the Russian government or had compromising information on Clinton.

[...]

She’s also traveled to the U.S. in a matter related to the Magnitsky affair -- her only case outside of Russia, she has said. She represented Denis Katsyv, the owner of Prevezon Holdings Ltd., an investment company based in Cyprus accused by the U.S. of laundering gains from the alleged tax fraud against the Hermitage Fund into New York real estate. Prevezon settled the case for $5.9 million in May, while admitting no wrongdoing.

If you skimmed or disregarded any of this information as uninteresting or a 'nothing burger,' fair enough, but I should point out that the three lines of Russia, Russia, Russia hoopla and media sensationalism can be stripped of the details of this or that misreported event -- and reduced to policy:  

-- what does the Trump administration plan to do with existing sanctions, and what is the probable outcome of fresh Magnitsky-related sanctions recently passed by the Senate and now reaching a vote in the House?

-- will the President veto the reconciled bill?

-- what is the Trump policy on 'resetting' relations with Russia going forward? 

Yes, the hoopla and sensationalism of Da Media can be disregarded. In the end, what seems important is whether or or not the administration intends to "move beyond" Obama-era distrust of Russia.

I think, all things considered, that implementing a "move beyond" strategy is going to be difficult this year ... the new sanctions bill passed the Senate 98 votes to 2 one month ago.

Edited by william.scherk
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william.scherk
On 7/14/2017 at 11:14 AM, william.scherk said:

-- what does the Trump administration plan to do with existing sanctions, and what is the probable outcome of fresh Magnitsky-relation sanctions recently passed by the Senate and now reaching a vote in the House?

According to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Kyiv, existing sanctions will remain until the Ukrainian war is ended (in the Donbass). I should mention that the Magnitsky set of sanctions were co-ordinated between the US and some of its closest allied democracies, including Canada. Though there are rumours (fed by former State employees of the Obama administration era) that the Trump administration planned to remove sanctions against Russia unilaterally, as we know, nothing happened on that matter. 

If we can believe Tillerson, the ball is in the Russian court:

 

Edited by william.scherk
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william.scherk
On 7/14/2017 at 11:14 AM, WSS, quoting AP, said:

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and current White House senior adviser, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting. Akhmetshin said he recognized Kushner and Trump Jr. He also said he recognized Manafort because they worked in “adjacent political circles” but never together.

He said there were others in the room but he didn’t know them. Publicist Rob Goldstone, who brokered the meeting via email with Trump Jr., has told the AP that he also participated in the meeting.

Asked about Akhmetshin’s participation in the meeting, Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni declined comment. A spokesman for Kushner did not respond to inquiries, nor did Trump Jr.’s attorney.

Some of the rest of the cast of characters in the forgettable June 6 2016 meeting at Trump Tower are being identified. So far, the attendees are:

Donald Trump Jr
Paul Manafort
Jared Kushner
Rinat Akhmetshin
Natalia Veselnitskaya
Anatoli Samochornov
Rob Goldstone

An eighth person is reported to have also attended -- a representative of the two gents of the Agalarov family (Agalarov the younger the pop singer's publicist is Goldstone).

The Agalarovs with Trump in Moscow in 2013:

13EMIN2-master768.jpg

Normal, Trump-supporting Americans will not be interested in the details of the meeting ... but the FBI and the congressional inquiries (what I call the committees of benghazi) may well be.

 

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Peter
On ‎7‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 0:24 PM, william.scherk said:

 

If you were running for class president in High School and a teacher said to you, I hope you win because your two opponents did . . . . 

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william.scherk
3 hours ago, Peter said:

If you were running for class president in High School and a teacher said to you, I hope you win because your two opponents did . . . . 

???

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william.scherk

Further to the mystery "Colonel Gorky, in the Meeting Room, with Chinese Water Torture."*

On 15/07/2017 at 0:08 PM, william.scherk said:
On 14/07/2017 at 11:14 AM, WSS, quoting AP, said:

Asked about Akhmetshin’s participation in the meeting, Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni declined comment. A spokesman for Kushner did not respond to inquiries, nor did Trump Jr.’s attorney.

Some of the rest of the cast of characters in the forgettable June 6 2016 meeting at Trump Tower are being identified. So far, the attendees are:

Donald Trump Jr 
Paul Manafort
Jared Kushner
Rinat Akhmetshin
Natalia Veselnitskaya
Anatoli Samochornov
Rob Goldstone

An eighth person is reported to have also attended -- a representative of the two gents of the Agalarov family 

The eighth person has been identified as Irakly (Ike) Kaveladze. 

Who are these people, and why is anti-Trump media large and small making such a picnic of it? Excepting pro-Trump media, large and small**, I observe Hoopla Grand Supreme.

"Will you please just answer the question, Senator McCarthy?"

image001_1.jpg?w=990

________________

* Many other titles are available, among which "Junior, in Trump Tower, with a Nothingburger."

** The standard anti-Trump hoopla is, more or less, this, reduced to a thick clot of suspicion (though innumerable detailed narratives of suspicion attach to each name).

Donald Trump Jr: involved in Trump real-estate ventures in Russia since 2005

Paul Manafort: brilliant political operative with clients as varied as Ferdinand Marcos and Viktor Yanukovych

Jared Kushner: brilliant confidant of now-President Trump.

Rinat Akhmetshin: "colourful" naturalized American, lobbyist.

Natalia Veselnitskaya: former prosecutor (in Russia), now lobbyist. In the kitchen with a file folder.

Anatoli Samochornov: neutral interpreter. Highly-sought witness of the committees of benghazi.

Rob Goldstone: "colourful" fixer, publicist.

Ike Kaveladze: "colourful" suspected money-launderer.

___________________

From the Grayest Lady ... in 2000:

 

Edited by william.scherk
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william.scherk

The hoopla machine has had another jolt of electricity delivered to it, all about that danged Trump Tower meeting, lodged under "Breaking News."

What? What "news" is that?

Well, there seems to have been more than a bit of careful consideration given to the very first statement released by Trump Junior ... and the White House has today confirmed that the President had been personally involved in its drafting. 

This is Junior's original  statement about the Gang of Eight meeting in Trump Tower, released to FoxNews and other outlets:

“It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at that time and there was no follow-up. I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.”

The White House had previously  denied reports that the President was involved in the drafting of this first statement. But yesterday it was reported that the President did indeed play a part in drafting the 'misleading' statement.  Today the White House press secretary confirmed yesterday's report.

This admission comes some time after the President's lawyer Jay Sekulow stated that the President had nothing whatsoever to do with the statement ...

Who cares?  Well, probably not many readers here, but I thought I should sample some of the Grand Supreme Hoopla now convulsing the usual suspects ...

trumpJrStatementHelp.png

The funny part of this schmozzle on a stick is that the President's unrecorded dinner chat with Putin is said to have been 'on adoption.' That revelation came from the President himself.  So, Don Junior's 'adoption' story makes sense ... in TrumpWorld.

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william.scherk
On 8/1/2017 at 3:27 PM, william.scherk said:

The hoopla machine has had another jolt of electricity delivered to it, all about that danged Trump Tower meeting, lodged under "Breaking News."

Donald Trump Junior has again dropped some interesting records of communications ... the same day the Hoopla broke on his communications with Wikileaks ...

 

Spoiler
share.png Julia Ioffe / The Atlantic:
The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks  —  Just before the stroke of midnight on September 20, 2016, at the height of last year's presidential election, the WikiLeaks Twitter account sent a private direct message to Donald Trump Jr., the Republican nominee's oldest son and campaign surrogate.
–
Discussion:
Cheryl Rofer / Balloon Juice:   It's Gonna Get Worse...
RELATED:
i146.jpgshare.png Matthew Nussbaum / Politico:
Pence denies knowing about Trump Jr. WikiLeaks contacts  —  Trump Jr. alerted top campaign officials about his communications; Pence seemed to dismiss idea of contact in October, 2016.  —  Vice President Mike Pence was not aware of communications between WikiLeaks and President Donald Trump's son …

 

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william.scherk

Another couple of bits of information that concern the Trump Tower 'nothing' meeting. First, it looks like the Russian Lawyer Lady was lying about the depth of her Kremlin connection.

-- the cast of characters ...

On 7/19/2017 at 11:21 AM, william.scherk said:

The standard anti-Trump hoopla is, more or less, this, reduced to a thick clot of suspicion (though innumerable detailed narratives of suspicion attach to each name).

Donald Trump Jr: involved in Trump real-estate ventures in Russia since 2005

Paul Manafort: brilliant political operative with clients as varied as Ferdinand Marcos and Viktor Yanukovych

Jared Kushner: brilliant confidant of now-President Trump.

Rinat Akhmetshin: "colourful" naturalized American, lobbyist.

Natalia Veselnitskaya: former prosecutor (in Russia), now lobbyist. In the kitchen with a file folder.

Anatoli Samochornov: neutral interpreter. Highly-sought witness of the committees of benghazi.

Rob Goldstone: "colourful" fixer, publicist.

Ike Kaveladze: "colourful" suspected money-launderer.

The second item of breathless reportage concerns 'sources say.'  In this case the sources saying say Michael Cohen knows something that will be of interest to the larger Mueller inquiries:  

Cohen claims Trump knew in advance of 2016 Trump Tower meeting
 

Quote

 

Updated 9:09 PM ET, Thu July 26, 2018

According to people who have discussed the matter with Cohen, he has expressed hope that this claim about the Trump Tower meeting will help him reach out to Mueller and possibly lessen his legal troubles. He's under scrutiny by federal prosecutors in Manhattan after Mueller referred Cohen's case to them.

The June 2016 meeting was arranged after a publicist who knew Trump Jr. told him in emails -- in no uncertain terms -- that a senior Russian official "offered to provide the Trump campaign" with damaging information about Clinton, and that the outreach was "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." At the time, the Russian operation to covertly boost Trump's candidacy wasn't publicly known. Trump. Jr. responded, "if it's what you say, I love it," and started to arrange the meeting.

[...]

Trump said on July 12, 2017, that he "only heard about it two or three days ago." One week later, Trump repeated that he "didn't know anything about the meeting" because "nobody told me" about it.

Around that same time, CNN's Jake Tapper asked Sekulow to confirm Trump's claims that he only recently learned about the controversial meeting. Sekulow's response: "Yes, I swear."

But perhaps the highest-stakes denial was given by Trump Jr. in his testimony last year to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"He wasn't aware of it," Trump Jr. told lawmakers, referring to his father's knowledge of the meeting. "And, frankly, by the time anyone was aware of it, which was summer of this year, as I stated earlier, I wouldn't have wanted to get him involved in it because it had nothing to do with him."

[...] Even Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist and top Trump campaign official, said the meeting was "treasonous" and speculated that "the chance that Don Jr. did not walk these (Russians) up to his father's office on the twenty-sixth floor is zero." Trump Jr. has denied Bannon's allegation. Bannon's comments, to author Michael Wolff for his book "Fire and Fury," triggered the bitter public divorce between Bannon and Trump in early 2018.

 

PS -- key words are Magnitsky and Browder.  Due diligence and all that.

Edited by william.scherk
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william.scherk

From another place (the endless Trump thread), some judgements about Bill Browder:

On 7/16/2018 at 11:48 PM, Michael Stuart Kelly, quoting the Russian president, said:
Quote

We can actually permit official representatives of the United States, including the members of this very commission headed by Mr. Mueller, we can lead them into the country and they will be present for this questioning. [...]

For instance, we can bring up Mr. Browder in this particular case. Business associates of Mr. Browder have earned over one and a half billion dollars in Russia. They never paid any taxes, neither in Russian army in the United States and yet the money escaped the country, they were transferred to the United States.

They sent huge amount of money - 400 million[**]- as a contribution to the campaign of Hillary Clinton.

What I read in between the lines is that US Deep State spooks helped one of the Russian white collar mobs (run at the time by an American, of all things) to generate $1.5 billion in Russia alone and, as gratitude, the Russian mob sent Hillary Clinton a $400 million present to help her get elected. Here is the Wikipedia entry of Bill Browder. He's a beaut...

He's from Chicago, of course... 

In the 1930's, his grandfather was the leader of  Communist Party USA, of course...

Sins of the father, and all that.  Guilt by association or Luciferian Bloodline? Maybe not. Good thing he isn't descended from hillbillies ...

Does anyone here feel able to lay out the "Browder side" of this Russian obsession yet?  Remember, the Veselnitskaya meeting with Trump Jr, Kushner and Manafort was judged a failure (by Trump Jr's assessment) because all she yammered about was Browder and the all-intriguing Magnitsky act.

Me, I am not eager to take the Russian position on this, at least not on its face -- especially since the 400 million dollars figure is entirely bullshit. The Magnitsky Acts in various countries (like Canada and USA) were in reaction to  ... ?

Clinton Body Count?  Nope.  Putin Body Count?  Where's the evidence?  In the Chicago Communist Hill Country, maybe.  

Here's Lee Stranahan, former Breitbart contributor and employee of the Russian-state-directed Sputnik News.  This is a parroting of the Russian line ... (first published on July 20th, 2018 at Bitchute)

Lee Stranahan joins Owen Shroyer live via Skype to expose the communist ties of traitor to the United States, Bill Browder.

 

Edited by william.scherk
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william.scherk

And then there's Maude:

AndThenTheresMaudeTRUMPTOWER.png

-- just because you are retiring from the House of Representatives, doesn't mean you can speak your mind. But Darrel Issa does it anyway. Maybe.

andthentheresISSA.png

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william.scherk

There's a wonderfully nostalgic song making the rounds, given Trump surrogate Giuliani's appearances in the last few churns of the Fake News fabric softener cycle. I won't bore anyone with a line-up of links to ignore, but this is almost cute:

It is not an index of Giuliani's confusion, the fact that Faye seems confused.  Some of the details of the known unknowns are obscure, and the real questions occluded.  It's not like he will himself face any consequences for muddying the field. Still, why go on these TV tours when you will be walking back remarks the next day, taking the spotlight off Presidential accomplishments..

Eg, 

Spoiler

-- the musical genre 'nostalgized' by the band was Ska .. a revamped good-boys version of late-fifties-and-sixties fusion music that in Jamaica evolved to Reggae. Despite the good-boy feel to the band, they were quite 'punk-adjacent' ... the sophistication of UK culture is a part of its world-wide heft.

 

Edited by william.scherk
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Michael Stuart Kelly

The fake news press is treating the Giuliani thing as if he believes he screwed up.

He doesn't.

And they also treat it as if Trump supporters give a shit.

They don't.

There's a lot of fake news ink being wasted on self-pleasuring.

November is coming...

Michael

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william.scherk

Quoting myself, in re Giuliani ... and then going for a heat-stricken ramble through thickets.

On 7/30/2018 at 3:34 PM, william.scherk said:

Some of the details of the known unknowns are obscure, and the real questions occluded.  It's not like [Giuliani] will himself face any consequences for muddying the field. Still, why go on these TV tours when you will be walking back remarks the next day, taking the spotlight off Presidential accomplishments..

"Walking back remarks" is perhaps not the right phrase, being tinged with loaded, emotive language. Walking back means in this case 'admitting,' another loaded term.  

I haven't added a lot of editorial in this thread. Readers can start at the top, get a feel for the meeting, read on for all the names and the fairly straightforward way the meeting was brushed off as being about 'adoptions.' Readers can get a rough sense of the timeline. 

But, to my mind, the President didn't really say anything new. He'd already opined last year that (to paraphrase) anyone. any campaign would  take a meeting to get dirt on an opponent -- though he did not  say anything  like "even if flagged as representatives of the Russian government's highest levels." That is the part that sticks in Trump Hate Club throats.  The simplistically-translated mini-story is that everybody lied until they realized there were "records." Then the adjustments began.

The worst or most florid of the Haters have narrated a tale in which Three Things Happened.  The first is tied to General Flynn. He would later communicate to the Ambassador that Russia should 'hold back' on reactions to the still-Obama-administration sanctions for Russian 'active measures.'  

But, the First is the Meeting. A meeting in which official contact was made.  The Magnitsky Sanctions irked Russia bad, fucking up their oligarchs and the general run of money-laundering and shady banking and corrupt justice system.  This was the Quid, the symbol of a relaxed future USA-Russia relationship. Sanctions would be removed under a Trump administration ...

Fast forward to the Second Thing Happening.  Insert that stuff here.  Then on to later, when the President-elect was transitioning.

Flynn said, 'hold off,' and will probably tell the whole truth about The Thing Lied About before he is sentenced to prison or work-release or halfway house or suspended sentence or whatever and then a pardon.

Flynn said hold back ... and after the First Happening happened, the the proffer, the Quid was unleashed (active measures and hacking results).  Nobody at that meeting was stupid enough to say, "OK, so, we should be aware that the rush of Bad Clinton Email Thingee via Wikileaks is courtesy of you guys, the GRU? Do I have that right?  And then if we win, we will be in a position to Let Oligarchs Be Oligarchs? Do I have that right?"

Then it gets murky, even to my conspuracy-inured mind-set.  The Second Happening was Muh Russia and then the third clinching thing was Flynn signaled that Magnitsky would be dropped and so hold your horses, Sergei.

Capture.jpg&w=1484&op=resize&opt=1&filte

Now, some of the hoot-monkeys who have analyzed the Events and Happenings have written timelines, quotes, assembled the Congressional testimony transcripts and kept up a running commentary, as well as penning long 7000 word treatises on Quid Pro Quo.

It is all speculation and wishful thinking, from the angle I have taken this morning. 

Having said all that, here is Don Junior on the radio with a widely-listened to host.  I've cued it up to the introduction to him, but advise listeners to pay attention closely to The Narrative just after 18:17 mark. That means you will first hear seven minutes of Don Junior and Laura Ingraham, but hey.

Spoiler

memeorandum[August 6, 2018, 6:30 PM]

 TOP ITEMS: 
i79.jpgshare.png Dana Bash / CNN:
President urged to stop tweeting on Trump Tower meeting  —  Did Trump Tower meeting violate this law?  —  (CNN)President Donald Trump has been urged to stop tweeting about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump's top advisers and several Russians, a source familiar with discussions tells CNN.
RELATED:
i101.jpgshare.png David A. Graham / The Atlantic:
The Double Damage of the President's Trump Tower Admission  —  In an attempt to defend his son Donald Trump Jr. on Sunday, President Donald Trump may instead have incriminated him—and himself.  —  Responding to a Washington Post report that he is increasingly concerned about his eldest son's legal exposure …
i91.jpgshare.png Byron York / Washington Examiner:
On a quiet Sunday, Trump Tower mania strikes  —  One story dominated news coverage and analysis Sunday: President Trump “admitted” that the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son, son-in-law, campaign chairman, and a group of Russians and Russian-Americans …

 

Edited by william.scherk
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william.scherk

So, what if Michael Cohen's spokesman Lanny Davis was initially telling the truth that Cohen knows of a meeting between candidate Trump and Trump Jr before the Trump Tower Russian-agent sit-down -- that Mr Trump was then aware of the offer from the Agalarovs via Rob Goldstone?  Davis has since walked back an initial comment, but it was a curious claim.

It seemed to me somewhat implausible ...

Headlines from the Ultra Grand Supreme Hoopla, via Memeorandum.com. This story by Mary Chastain of Legal Insurrection is reasonably well-sourced:

Quote

Cohen lawyer denies CNN report on Trump prior knowledge of Trump Tower meeting

 

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