#37. "Russia, If You're Listening...." (Summer 2016)
In the summer of 2016, as the two parties formally selected their candidates, Russian intelligence operatives went into overdrive in support of Trump. Suddenly, the emails started pouring in.
By June 2016, Donald Trump had all but nailed down the Republican presidential nomination. His last two major rivals, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, had both dropped out in early May 2016 — Cruz on May 3rd after Trump won the Indiana primary, and Kasich the following day. That left Trump as the sole remaining candidate and the presumptive Republican nominee.
So, in June 2016, Trump was in the process of consolidating the party behind him, weighing Mike Pence as his running mate, and preparing for the Republican National Convention the following month where the Republican Party chose him as their presidential candidate running against Hillary Clinton.
But a lot was going on behind the scenes. Especially with the Russians. On June 3, 2016, music publicist Rob Goldstone, who represented Emin Agalarov, the pop star son of Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov, sent Donald Trump Jr. an email with an explosive subject line: “Russia – Clinton – private and confidential.”
The message promised “official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia” from the “Crown prosecutor of Russia.” Goldstone added: “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
Seventeen minutes later, Donald, Jr. responded: “if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”
Then, on June 7, Don Jr. sent Goldstone another email, this time confirming who would attend the meeting: “It will likely be Paul Manafort (campaign boss) my brother in law and me.”
Two days later, Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner sat down in Trump Tower with a Russian delegation that included Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, former Soviet counterintelligence officer Rinat Akhmetshin, and Agalarov business associate Irakly Kaveladze. A translator was also present.
But, according to Don Jr. and Rob Goldstone, once when the meeting got underway, rather than focusing on the promised “dirt” about Hillary Clinton, the discussion immediately centered on sanctions that had been imposed on Russia as a result of the Magnitsky Act. Participants later claimed that the meeting lasted only 20 minutes and Don Jr. said it was full of nothing but “inane nonsense.”
Nevertheless, what transpired became one of the most tangible pieces of evidence that the Trump campaign was ready, willing, and able to conspire with a foreign adversary. Two days before the meeting, Donald Trump himself announced he would be giving a “major speech” on Hillary Clinton’s dealings, saying, “I think you’re going to find it very informative and very, very interesting.”
Next, on June 14, the Washington Post reported that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer networks of the Democratic National Committee networks. According to CrowdStrike, a leading cybersecurity firm, the hackers were identified as “Cozy Bear” and “Fancy Bear.” The next day, Guccifer 2.0 kicked into gear. It was later identified as a front from Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU (Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye, or Main Intelligence Directorate). In other words, this was clearly an operation run by Russian intelligence.
Then, in the third week of July, came the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. As I wrote in House of Trump, House of Putin:
The party elders had had little input from the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, on most issues, with the striking exception of American policy with regard to Ukraine. Throughout the campaign, Trump had been less than supportive of Ukraine in its ongoing battle with Russia. In August 2015, asked by NBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press what he thought about Ukraine’s joining NATO, Trump replied, “I wouldn’t care.” He also said that Ukraine was “really a problem that affects Europe a lot more than it affects us.” Coupled with his prediction to Bill O’Reilly that “I would have a great relationship with Putin,” Trump’s remarks led anti-Russia activists in Ukraine to call Trump a “Kremlin agent.”
They were right.
Meanwhile, at the convention, two men who were part of the Trump campaign, came over to Diana Denman, a member of the platform committee, and said the language in the Republican platform regarding Ukraine had to be reviewed. In the end, J. D. Gordon, one of the two men on the Trump campaign, won, and the language was changed from calling on the US to provide Ukraine “lethal defensive weapons” to the phrase “appropriate assistance”—whatever that meant.
The direction indicated by the new plank was far-reaching and a profound departure from everything the Republican Party had stood for.
But it must have made Vladimir Putin very, very happy.
Then, on July 22, 2016, the day after the Republican Convention ended, and three days before the DNC convention began, Wikileaks released 20,000 DNC emails which it had obtained thanks to hacking by the GRU’s online persona, Guccifer 2.0.
Finally, five days later, on July 27, at a press conference, Trump publicly asked Russia to find Clinton’s “missing” emails: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”
As it turned out, Russia was listening. Hours later, Russian hackers targeted Clinton’s personal servers for the first time.
As July ended, the Trump campaign had accepted an offer of Russian government assistance, changed its platform to benefit the Kremlin, and publicly encouraged Russian hacking. Through Trump operative Roger Stone, they were coordinating with WikiLeaks about future email releases.
The asset was cooperating. Now came the final push—deploying the email weapon at precisely the right moments to tilt the election.
Cast of Characters
Rob Goldstone: British music publicist for Emin Agalarov who arranged Trump Tower meeting. Later admitted he “embellished” the email to get Trump Jr.’s attention.
Natalia Veselnitskaya: Russian attorney who lobbied against Magnitsky Act sanctions. Denied working for Kremlin but met with Russia’s Prosecutor General Yury Chaika before the Trump Tower meeting.
Roger Stone: Long-time Trump advisor who maintained back-channel communications with WikiLeaks about upcoming email releases.
For the complete story on how Trump became a Russian asset, buy House of Trump, House of Putin, and/or American Kompromat.
And don’t miss my latest book, Den of Spies!
House of Trump, House of Putin
The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia
American Kompromat
How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery
Den of Spies
Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason That Stole the White House
Always wondered what Jeff sessions would say about the meeting after Trump humiliated him....he kept his mouth shut...disappointing. He seemed to have Principles. I didn't agree with most of them but i thought he might divulge what he knew
I think it is pretty obvious that Trump is a British agent of influence that was ALLOWED to do business with the Russians, Czechs, etc... in exactly the same way as his best friend Jeffrey Epstein or his mentor Robert Maxwell ☝️ Trump's dad is known to have funded the John Birch Society which is a British front organization...
Note that plenty of authors paint both Epstein and Maxwell as Russian agents, when in fact they were both known mi6 SIS agents, just like Ghislaine and Douglas Leese 👑 now they are even attempting the same with Prince Andrew!