The controversy surrounding allegations of Trump campaign’s collision with Russia got another major bombshell this week after Trump’s son and key member of his campaign released emails showing that he met a highly connected Russian lawyer at the height of the campaign. The timing of this meeting was however very interesting. It took place just as the primary season in the 2016 election came to an end. At the time Trump was already running away with the GOP ticket but there was still a major hurdle.
Trump was getting ready for a massive floor battle with delegates at the Republican National Convention that was scheduled for the next month in Cleveland. Trump also launched a barrage of attacks towards the Clintons as well as a controversial attack on a judge presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University. The timeline of the events before the meeting could offer a clue as to what really was discussed.
June 2 was the day it all began. It was just before the initial contact with Donald Trump Jr. was made by Rob Goldstone who represented the Russian pop star Emin Agalarov. This was also the day Trump was endorsed by House speaker Paul Ryan. On that day, Trump also launched a verbal attack on Hillary Clinton in a rally in San Jose calling her “guilty as hell”. He went on to note that Hillary Clinton had to go to jail.
On June 3, the initial contact was made. The email from Goldstone reportedly said that Emin Agalarov, whose father is a billionaire in Russia, had information that could incriminate Hillary in her dealings with Russia. Goldstone noted that the information would be quite useful for his father. The email also read that the information to be shared was very sensitive but it was part of Russia’s support towards Donald Trump. The email exchange shows that Donald Trump Jr. agreed to meet and discuss the options.
It all went quiet until June 7th, which was a very important day. This was the final day of the primary campaign and Goldstone had offered to arrange a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a high profile Russian lawyer. Trump’s son agreed to the meeting and during that day, his father was declared the winner of the GOP ticket. In a victory speech that night, perhaps the most significant thing was Trump’s renewed attack on the Clintons. He called them corrupt saying that they had made millions illegally. But that was not all. Trump said that he was going to give a major speech about what had happened to the Clintons.
This was supposedly meant to be an exposé of the Clintons and while it’s not clear what Trump was talking about, there was a feeling that he was going to rely on the Intel his son would bring from the meeting with the Russian lawyer. The meeting took place on June 9th. Trump Jr. has insisted that there was no information shared and that the lawyer who has been identified as Natalia Veselnitskaya only wanted to discuss the Magnitsky Act. The meeting lasted 30 minutes. The emails ended there and while there is still no damning evidence, who knows where the trail may lead.
