I had thought that the number of people who attended Donald Trump Jr’s June 9, 2016 was recently totaled to be 8 participants. They would be 1) Donald Trump Jr., 2) Jared Kushner, brother-in-law and Trump adviser, 3) Paul Manafort, then current Trump campaign manager with ties to Ukraine, 4) Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who was sent to meet with Donald, Jr. and who also reportedly had close ties to the Kremlin, 5) Rob Goldstone, the publicist and friend of Aras Agalarov, Russian oligarch who sponsored the Miss Universe pageant in 2013 where Donald met the Agalarovs, 6) Irakly Kaveladze, Mr. Agalarov’s representative at the meeting and known for money laundering , 7) Rinat Akhmetshin, acquaintance of Ms. Veselnitskaya, who reported that a plastic folder with email dirt on the Hillary Clinton campaign was given to Donald, Jr., 8) Anatoli Samachorov, a Russian/English translator.
But I recently came across an article which has not been given much notice in the news of an apparent 9th attendee of the Donald Trump Jr. meeting. A blog news site, “The Whim” reported June 26, 2017 that Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS also attended the meeting. (thewhim.com) The article states “Glenn Simpson is a lobyist with ties to Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer and Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist. All three were also in attendance at the Trump Jr. meeting in 2016.” [Emphasis mine] The article was in relation to news that the Senate Committee rescinded its subpoena for Paul Manafort’s testimony Wednesday. (www.thewhim.com/...)
NBC News asked “Who is Glenn Simpson, Man Entangled in Two Russia Scandals?” July 27, 2017 by Ken Dilanian. The article indicates that Simpson, who founded Fusion GPS, helped write the Trump-Russia dossier composed by the former British intelligence officer that described scandalous information about Trump and how the Russians appeared to be blackmailing Trump. Dilanian states “The dossier’s claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia helped spark the FBI investigation now supervised by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.” Simpson also apparently worked for the Russians trying to disprove Sergei Magnitsky’s corruption allegations against Russian oligarchs and to get the Magnitsky Act sanctions lifted, along with Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin. (The article also details a number of other clients he has represented over the years.) (www.nbcnews.com/...) This article does not mention that Simpson attended the June 9th meeting.
So how can the man who helped spread rumors that Trump was being blackmailed by the Russians, also be acting to help Donald Jr. collude with the Russians in order to get Donald Trump elected?
A CBS News story, “Trump Jr.’s meeting with Russian Lawyer was about sanctions, financier tells Senate panel” by Emily Tillett, July 27, 2017 helps spell out the connection. Financier, Bill Browder, CEO and founder of Hermitage Capital, was the American who had invested millions in Russian businesses only to have his business interests confiscated by Russian fraud. He was the one who hired Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer who exposed massive Russian corruption connected to the Putin regime, and was subsequently arrested and apparently died/killed in prison. US Sanctions on Russian oligarchs, called the Magnitsky Act (passed 2013), has hurt Russian oligarchs’s business interests and has led to vigorous Russian efforts to have the sanctions removed, most recently by President Trump. Putin was apparently infuriated by the sanctions because it hurt his business interests as well, and in retaliation prohibited adoption of Russian orphans by Americans. (In fact, talking about “Russian orphans” is more or less code for talking about removing the Magnitsky sanctions.) So the Donald Trumps Jr. meeting about “adoptions” was most likely an effort to have the Trump administration remove Russian sanctions in exchange for giving the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton to get Trump elected President, according to Browder. (www.cbsnews.com/...)
But how can Simpson
and Fusion GPS be working to undermine Donald Trump’s election AND working to get him elected so that Trump will dismiss Russian Sanctions of the Magnitsky Act? A recent article by NPR explains in detail: NPR, “Businessman Paints Terrifying and Complex Picture of Putin's Russia”. (www.npr.org/...) In this article Miles Parks, July 28, 2017, describes how Bill Browder has learned about the inner workings of the Russian government which he calls a “’kleptocracy’ sustained by corruption, blackmail, torture and murder with Putin at its center. Effectively the moment that you enter into their world,’ Browder told senators...you become theirs.” Browder continued “This is a war of ideology between the rule of law and criminality, and if we allow all the corrupt money to come here, then its going to corrupt us until we will end up like them.” Browder identified Natalia Veselnitskaya as the "point person” for Russian efforts to remove the sanctions on Russian oligarchs. He told Senator Dianne Feinstein that the meeting with Donald Trump Jr. resulted from an offer by the Russians for dirt on Clinton and help in getting Donald Trump elected in exhange for getting the Magnitsky Act repealed, a “quid pro quo”. Senator Lindsey Graham asked how Russia could be both behind the Trump dossier while also supporting Trump’s election. Browder answered “yes” to Graham’s question “Is it common for Russia to play both sides against the middle?” Browder went on to explain that for the Russians “there is no ideology at all...Vladimir Putin is in the business of trying to create chaos everywhere.” He also added that there is no contradiction because Putin searches for leverage over people, will help a target in some way that is legally incriminating them and then hold that threat of exposure over them to blackmail them. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D, Conn., asked, according to NPR, “They’ve got you both ways: with the carrot of continued bribery, and the stick of exposure and blackmail if you defect?” Browder responded “That is how every single one of their relationships work...That’s how they grab people and keep them. And once you get stuck with them, you can never leave.”
Also see CBS News “Bill Browder on past dealings with Russian Lawyer in Trump Jr. meeting”, July 18, 2017, which describes Velenitskaya and Akhmetshin’s prior relationship before the Donald Trump Jr. meeting, in working to lift the Magnitsky Act sanctions. (www.cbsnews.com/...)
A CBS News interview by Lesley Stahl, March 12, 2017, also documents what happens to those who cross Putin in various parts of the world. “Putin critic says he’s one of the lucky ones: “I’m still here.”www.cbsnews.com/...
Also see CNN Politics, “Businessman: Russian intelligence likely monitored June 2016 Trump Jr. meeting”, by Tom Lobianco and Manu Raju, July 27, 2017,
A Washington Post article by Josh Rogan, July 11, 2017, also documents the link between the Russian lawyer, Veselnitskaya, and her dealings with both Donald Jr. and the Fusion GPS. (www.washingtonpost.com/...) Also see Fox News, “Firm behind anti-Trump dossier also worked for Russia, Senate witness says” , July27, 2017,(www.foxnews.com/...)
Another NPR article by Jackie Northam details “Russian Spies’ Go-To-Tactics for Entangling People: Bribery and Blackmail, April 11, 2017. (www.npr.org/...) And it adds that since no one, even in Russia, really trusts the Russian banking system Russians want to deposit money or invest money in other countries like real estate in New York City or in Florida, leading to massive money laundering.
So the bottom line is that the Putin and the Russians want it both ways---to have Donald Trump on a short leash due to threats of blackmail against him and his family and to get sanctions relief. Now that the US Congress has removed Trump’s power to lift the Russian sanction, and has even strengthened them, WATCH OUT. What will Putin do next? Causing total disruption in the Presidency of the United States would also seem to be a likely goal of Putin’s. Will he turn on Trump and reveal information that leads to impeachment? Or will he just let dribs and drabs leak out to keep the United States in prolonged turmoil? Will he also assist North Korea to become a ever more quickly developing threat? It also seems likely to me that the testimony of Manafort, Kushner and Donald, Jr. was postponed by Congress because investigations are on-going behind the scenes producing more and more evidence that will box them in and catch them in their collusion before their statements are officially made. One article indicated that overwhelming Congressional support of the Bill to limit Donald Trump’s ability to change the Russian sanctions is pretty clear proof that Congressman fear that there are Trump Russia ties. (www.cbsnews.com/...)