Rob Goldstone | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 3 December 1960 Whitefield, England, UK |
| Occupation | Publicist, tabloid journalist |
Robert Ian Goldstone (born 3 December 1960) is a British publicist, music manager, and former tabloid journalist who gained international attention for his activities during the 2016 American presidential election campaign. [1]
Goldstone was born in Whitefield, Bury, Greater Manchester, [2] where his father was a founding member of the Hillock Hebrew Congregation. He attended Delamere Forest School in Cheshire and Heys Boys' County Secondary School in Prestwich. He left school at age 16 to become a trainee sports reporter at the Jewish Gazette. [3] He then worked for the Radcliffe Times and, later, for the Birmingham Evening Mail . [2] [4] [5]
While working as a print journalist for the Australian Associated Press (AAP), Goldstone became the only journalist to travel with Michael Jackson on his 1987 Australian BAD tour. [2] [4] [5]
In 1987, Goldstone founded Oui 2 Entertainment, a publicity, marketing, and event-planning company. [5] Clients of the company have included the New York Friars Club, the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club, Steinway & Sons, the Russian Tea Room, and Azerbaijani pop star Emin Agalarov. Oui 2 assisted the Trump Organization in bringing the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant to Moscow with Agaralov's father, billionaire Aras Agalarov, as host. [4] [5] [6] [7]
On 7 June 2016, on behalf of Emin Agalarov, Goldstone e-mailed Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr., to request a meeting between the younger Trump and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya (referred to in Goldstone's e-mail as a "Russian government attorney"). [8] [9] According to Goldstone's email, Agalarov wanted to "provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information" that would help Donald Trump's campaign and damage the campaign of his rival, Hillary Clinton. [8] Donald Trump, Jr., replied immediately: "If it's what you say[,] I love it[,] especially later in the summer." [10]
At the request of Donald Trump, Jr., Goldstone attended the meeting, held on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower. The gathering included the younger Trump; Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner; Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort; Aras Agaralov's employee Ike Kaveladze; Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya; former Russian counterintelligence officer Rinat Akhmetshin; and a translator. [11] [12]
The existence of the meeting was reported in July 2017. Some news outlets took the meeting as evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. [13] [14]
In an interview with The Sunday Times , Goldstone claimed: "When people said that [I was part of some Russian plot] I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. That doesn't mean that maybe there wasn't any Russian interference or Trump campaign collusion in other ways. I don't know. But I'm sure I wasn't part of it."
On 18 December 2017, Goldstone was interviewed by the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. [15]
Donald John Trump Jr. is an American businessman, former television presenter, political activist, and author. He is the eldest child of Donald Trump and his first wife Ivana Trump.
Emin Aras oghlu Agalarov, also known as Emin Arazovich Agalarov, is an Azerbaijani-Russian singer and businessperson. He is the son of Aras Agalarov, an Azerbaijani-Russian billionaire. From 2006 to 2015, he was married to Leyla Aliyeva, the daughter of the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev.
Aras Iskanderovich Agalarov is an Azerbaijani-Russian billionaire real estate developer. Listed in Forbes as the 51st richest Russian in 2015, several sources have described him as a Russian oligarch.
The Russian government used espionage to interfere in the 2016 United States elections with the goals of sabotaging the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. According to the U.S. intelligence community, the operation—code named Project Lakhta —was ordered directly by Russian president Vladimir Putin. The 448-page Mueller report, made public in April 2019, examined over 200 contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials but concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring any conspiracy or coordination charges against Trump or his associates.
Donald Trump has pursued business deals in Russia since 1987, and has repeatedly traveled there to explore potential business opportunities. In 1996, Trump trademark applications were submitted for potential Russian real estate development deals. Trump, his children, and his partners have repeatedly visited Russia, connecting with real estate developers and Russian government officials to explore joint venture opportunities. Trump was never able to successfully conclude any real estate deals in Russia. However, individual Russians have invested heavily in Trump properties, and, following Trump's bankruptcies in the 1990s, he borrowed money from Russian sources. Both Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have said that Russia was an important source of money for the Trump businesses.
This is a timeline of events related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
Since Donald Trump was a 2016 candidate for the office of President of the United States, myriad suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials have been discovered by the FBI, Special counsel, and several United States congressional committees, as part of their investigations into the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following intelligence reports about the Russian interference, Trump and some of his campaign members, business partners, administration nominees, and family members were subjected to intense scrutiny to determine whether they had improper dealings during their contacts with Russian officials. Several people connected to the Trump campaign made false statements about those links and obstructed investigations. These investigations resulted in many criminal charges and indictments.
Natalia Vladimirovna Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer. Her clients include Pyotr Katsyv, an official in the state-owned Russian Railways, and his son Denis Katsyv, whom she defended against a money laundering charge in New York. On 8 January 2019, Veselnitskaya was indicted in the United States with obstruction of justice charges for allegedly having attempted to thwart the Justice Department investigation into the money laundering charges against Katsyv.
A meeting took place at Trump Tower in New York City on June 9, 2016, between three senior members of the 2016 Trump campaign – Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort – four other U.S. citizens, and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. The meeting was arranged by publicist and long-time Trump acquaintance Rob Goldstone on behalf of his client, Russian singer-songwriter Emin Agalarov. The meeting was first disclosed to U.S. government officials in April 2017, when Kushner filed a revised version of his security clearance form.
Rinat Rafkatovitch Akhmetshin is a Russian-American lobbyist and a former Soviet counterintelligence officer. Bill Browder alleges that Akhmetshin represents Russian intelligence interests. He came to American media spotlight in July 2017 as a registered lobbyist for an organization run by Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who, along with him, had a meeting with Donald Trump's election campaign officials in June 2016.
Irakly "Ike" Kaveladze is a Georgian-American business executive. He is senior vice president at Crocus Group, the real estate development company run by Aras Agalarov. He was one of eight people attending a meeting with Donald Trump's election campaign officials in June 2016. According to his attorney, Kavaladze is a long-time U.S. citizen and has "never had any engagement with the Russian government in any capacity."
Rhona Cheryl Graff is a long-standing executive assistant to Donald Trump and senior vice-president of the Trump Organization. She worked at Trump Tower in New York City for nearly thirty years prior to Trump's election to the United States Presidency, and has been described as Trump's 'gatekeeper'. Following Trump's election to the White House, Graff continued to handle his arrangements outside official engagements.
Democratic National Committee v. Russian Federation, et al. was a civil lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the Russian Federation, WikiLeaks and other entities and individuals. The case, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, was filed on April 20, 2018. The DNC's complaint accused the Trump campaign of engaging in a racketeering enterprise in conjunction with Russia and WikiLeaks. The American Civil Liberties Union, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and others filed friend-of-the-court briefs expressing concern over the lawsuit's implications for freedom of the press.
This is a timeline of major events in the first half of 2017 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8 and the post-election transition, this article begins with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being sworn into office on January 20, 2017, and is followed by the second half of 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
This is a timeline of major events in first half of 2018 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, the transition, and the first and second halves of 2017, but precedes the second half of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021. These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections.
This is a timeline of events related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, sorted by topics. It also includes events described in investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies. Those investigations continued in 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and 2019, largely as parts of the Crossfire Hurricane FBI investigation, the Special Counsel investigation, multiple ongoing criminal investigations by several State Attorneys General, and the investigation resulting in the Inspector General report on FBI and DOJ actions in the 2016 election.
This is a chronology of significant events in 2016 and 2017 related to the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies during the Trump presidential transition and the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016, this article begins on November 8 and ends with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being sworn into office on January 20, 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
This is a timeline of major events in the second half of 2017 related to the investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, the post-election transition, and the first half of 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
This is a timeline of events related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
The Mueller special counsel investigation was started by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was serving as Acting Attorney General due to the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He authorized Robert Mueller to investigate and prosecute "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump", as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation" and any other matters within the scope of 28 CFR 600.4 – Jurisdiction.