goldstone has not wanted to come on.f you can help with that at all since he has a relationship with your client. he really is the only person that could put some meat on the bones of this speculation. last question, your client's relationship to the lawyer involved here the woman who took the meeting is what? >> well, again i've said this before, natalia is an acquaintance of emmean and she has been pursuing this issue for some time and as a result mr. agalrov was willing to make an introduction to give her a forum and that's really the totality of our involvement. >> that's something this kind of story was made up by your client's publicist and he's still working for him. thank you very much. appreciate your perspective on this. >> my pleasure. >> we're obviously following a lot of news including a live interview with president trump's attorney. let's get right to it. >> we're now beyond obstruction of justice. >> for me this is acquisition research. >> any time you're in a campaign, you can offer from a foreign govern

rob goldstone represents a contact of don jr. and donald trump in russia. he -- emin agalarov, a pop star in the country, sold a million records. don sr. once appeared in one of his pop videos where he played the boss reprimanding emin around the boardroom table and eventually firing him. the interesting thing about emin, though, is that his father is aras agalarov, one of russia's biggest property developers. moscow's biggest shopping mall. he's the businessman who donald trump partnered with in 2013 to stage the miss universe competition here in the russian capital. there is this direct line of various russian players from donald trump, the president to his son, the music publicist, to the pop star to the biggest property developer, one of the biggest property developers in moscow. that's the suggestion that it was through this route that the kremlin attempted to exert its influence on the trump campaign. of course, the kremlin and the trump campaign both categorically deny that. >> all right. fascinating. matthew chance, thanks for breaking that down. ni

and which led to rob goldstone.he british national and music publicist who represents emin sending that e-mail to don jr. saying, hey, can you meet with this russian lawyer, a russian lawyer who was closely linked with the kremlin. the suggestion is that it was the kremlin working through its business contacts in russia of which obviously it has strong contacts to try and access the trump campaign. that's of course an allegation and something the kremlin denies. >> fascinating. matthew chance, keep us abreast of the developments and players. thank you, sir. >>> potential make-or-break day for senate republicans and their health care reform efforts. all of them back from holiday recess. they're getting their first opportunity to discuss the status of their measure to repeal and replace obamacare. it could give us our first real idea when a new bill could emerge. >> lawmakers didn't exactly receive a warm welcome in washington. 80 people arrested on capitol hill protesting the gop health care plan. demonstrations brea

that's probably goldstone's biggest claim to fame. having a way to get through to donald trump jr. the connection to amin is really the issue here. >> how close are the connections between amin and putin? >> okay, so amin and his father do business. they build things they are building amazing entertainment complexes. amin studied in the united states, he lived there for a long time. they're massive projects, just outside moscow, nobody does that without everybody knowing about it, then, also because arasas is a big time businessman, you're never that big a businessman in russia without being close to power. there's the deals that get done with various people who end up being close to putin. shipping deals, all these trace back to people who are friends of putin. the one time i saw him, he was outside putin's press office. >> is it logical to think that vladimir putin would have passed on a message through amin, given to a promote r, to contact don jr. to contact this lawyer to get influence in the trump campaign. >> if you ask me, the

donald trump jr., according to goldstone was put in charge of that project. bling it to fruition. -- bringing it to fruition. ivanka trump flew to moscow in february 2014 and scouted sites for the property of trump tower with emin aguilar of, and there's photographic evidence on the facebook page of ivanka and emin in moscow at the time goldstone told me it was. it is true this ultimately didn't happen. emin aguilar af said it was because trump decided to run for president. in fact, trump properties organization went forward -- projects went forward around the world. what really happened according to goldstone's account was in 20s 14 russia annexes crimea in ukraine, and the u.s. imposes sanctions. and the project is no longer economically feasible. so if nothing else, when we learn as we have, that in the early weeks of the trump organization -- of the trump administration, they were looking to lift sanctions on russia, you have to wonder if the fact that sanctions torpedoed his long cherished project in moscow, may have been a factor in -- >> you've opened

according to the e-mails on june 9th of 2016, rob goldstone writes to donald trump. goldstone, again, an acquaintance who manages a pop singer whose father has ties to the russian government and to president trump. goldstone writes, "the crown prosecutor of russia met with his the singer's father this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful to your father." in that same e-mail, goldstone writes, "this is very obviously high level and sensitive information but is part of russia and its government support for mr. trump. 17 minutes later, trump jr. responds. "if it's what you say, i love it, especially later in the summer." three days the later the conversation picks back up, goldstone writing, let me know when you are free to talk with the singer about this hillary info. more back and forth occurs, a day later june 7th, 2016, goldstone writes, "emin asks that i schedule a government with you and the russian governm

that's how rob goldstone described it.t he did not make jared kushner and paul manafort aware. that's why they came to the meeting. it is also very difficult to believe he didn't tell his father about this information. >> and also, directly refute ing this, i want to share again, it said in that e-mail, as part of the russian government's effort to help trump, and then on july 24th, 2016, on television, donald trump jr. when asked about the clinton campaign's claims that the russians were helping trump, he said, it is disgusting, it is so phony. so for donald trump jr., in july of last year, to say it is disgusting and it is so phony, there is no other way to describe this, that is a lie, given what he clearly knew in this e-mail exchange that he has sent out in june. >> much more to be done about this, much more to be read, john harwood and our team are going to be scouring this information and seeing what other fallout comes out of it. thanks for watching this hour of msnbc live with us. i'm ali velshi. >> i'm stephanie

i assume it would be at your office, best, rob goldstone. on june 7, he> writes, how about 3:00 at our office? i appreciate your help setting this up. >> later that same day, rob goldstone wrote back, perfect, won't sit on -- sit in on the meeting that will introduce you etc.. i will send the names of the two people meeting with you for security when i have been later today. best, rob. by the way, we know today that one of those names just happens to be a soviet counter intelligence officer. >> punch in seventh at 6:14 p.m., donald trump jr. writes it will likely be my brother-in-law and me. fifth avenue, 25th floor which is trump tower. >> on june 8, the next day, rob goldstone bike -- right back, good morning, what it be possible to move tomorrow's meeting to 4 p.m. as the russian attorney is in court until three -- 3:00. i was just informed. best, rob. at 11:15e 8, 2016, p.m., donald trump jr. writes, yes rob, i can do that unless he wanted to do 3:00 today instead. let me know and i will lock it in either way. this is some eagerness this

and doesn't know goldstone either.as, quote, a tall tale that goldstone asked from junior to contact him about dirt from hillary clinton, clearly trying to distance himself from this. >>> joining us with former cia chief of russia operations. you watch that video there. and part of the trump world defense had been we didn't know where this meeting was coming from. didn't really have any idea when we walked in the room. it was about this. it was about that. but you see great familiarity there now with this very powerful oligarch and his son who were essential in setting up that meeting. >> and i think the context here is all along they've been telling us that there were no contacts. in this particular case, we've had the story change, i don't know, three times over the weekend. this story may change again before we finally figure out what actually happened in that meeting. were there any other meetings that took place after that meeting or maybe follow-ups that we haven't learned about yet. so there is a lot of reportin

goldstone, he and donald trump jr.o back to, well, the miss universe page enlt ant in russi through the pop star, the son of a real estate tycoon. in russia known of something as a donald trump of russia. trump partnered with him to bring the 2013 miss universe pageant to moscow. through that miss universe pageant that goldstone met the son, the origin of the relationship between the e-mail. very familiar by the time the june e-mail was sent. the prosecutor general where it gets particularly interesting about the information involved here. a putin appointee. and the lawyer who, met -- with -- with donald trump jr. in trump tower that day as well as with jared kushner and paul manafort. met there. look at all the faces on the screen there. you have a connection going back to, that miss universe pageant there. where goldstone was familiar with donald trump jr. goldstone saying he could introduce donald trump jr. to the lawyer connected to the kremlin. the lawyer of course, offering information provided by, chaika, the pr

in an e-mail, this goes from rob goldstone back to don. great, they just pulled it up on the screen. pleasant tris, then says amin asked that i schedule with you and the russian government attorney who is flying over from moscow for this thursday. so, that seems to be a problem in the fact this person is not connected to the kremlin at all. >> yeah. i mean -- you know, you can claim, i guess, this is somebody who wasn't in the government with no experience with this. i think they are going to run into a problem. you are taking information to hurt a political opponent in an american election from somebody that is identifying themselves as coming from the government, information from the russian government. that's going to raise a ton of questions with the fbi investigators among senators and house members on the hill. i think you saw that with senator mccain. the other question, if i were sitting in an interview with don jr., i would ask, if you didn't think there was anything wrong with it, why are we only finding out about it a year later

and his contact rob goldstone, they prove the collusion junior's been denying all along. >> goldstonetes "the crown prosecutor of russia offered to provide the trump campaign with official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful to your father. this is obviously very high-level and sensitive information but is part of russia and its government's support for mr. trump. >> trevor: you could not write a clearer, more narc-y email than that. it was like getting an email saying would you like by your own choi to speak illegal marijuana drawings in violation of local statute 22 section 3? ( laughter ) to be fair to don, jr., just getting the email is not proof of collusion. you're not responsible for the e-mails you get. you're on responsible for the e-mails you send. >> 17 minutes later trump, jr. responds, if it's what you say, i love it. ( laughter ) >> trevor: i love it. 17 minutes later. the russians said they wanted to team up with the trump campaign against hillary clinton in the american presidential election, an

emin agalarov, goldstone's client, according to goldstone, told him, don't worry. my father can make it happen. his father was known in russia as putin's builder. he'd done all these massive construction projects for putin. so there was a very tight relationship there, and goldstone was there the whole time. he was in moscow with trump, with emin agalarov throughout the miss universe pageant, and was witness to everything that went on. >> michael, i'm going to have to watch your answer to that on the rebroadcast tonight because i'm just stuck on from michael jackson to emin agalarov, how the mighty have fallen. i couldn't get beyond that. david frum, the president of the united states to this day, today, finds absolutely nothing wrong in the meeting that his son and his son-in-law and his campaign manager had with this russian lawyer. >> that is provoking, but just understand when he said that, what a punch in the head he's just administered to everyone who supported him over the past six months. and if you have been watching fox, if you follow conservative twitter

was like, last night, he is just an acquaintance, rob goldstone, which i think will make goldstone be a little more chatty about what went on. amy: it is an just concerned about was it a quid pro quo. there are those lawyers who are raising the issue of federaral finance laws being broken because you are breaking ththe w if you're getting something of value from a foreign national. you know, for a campaign. >> as you said, jared kushner did not disclose this until a couple of efforts to fully disclose his meanings with foreign government people onon s secret clearance form. so there is the says that everyone was trying to hide this. one subtext to this whole thing is that jared kushner has very competent lawyers. one used to work at doj. another is one of the best defense attorneys in the country. as you said, don jr. and the rest of the trump family keep glorying up with mom lawyers are totally inappropriate. and are not doing what kushner's lawyers seem to be d doing, whih is getting ahead of the issues. it will be intereststing to see how the tensions in the white house play out as

lieu: the next day, at 4:27 p.m., rob goldstone wrote, don, hope all is well. he asked i schedule a meeting with you and the russian government attorney who is flying other on this thursday. i believe you're aware of the meet, wonder if 3:00 p.m. or later on thursday works for you. i assume it would be at your office. best, rob goldstone. 2016, lego: on june 7, donald trump jr. writes, how about 3:00 at our office. thanks, appreciate your help setting this up. mr. lieu: rob goldstone wrote back later that day, perfect, won't sit in on the meeting but will bring them at 3:00 p.m. and introduce you, etc. i will send the names for the two people meeting with you for security when i have them later today. best, rob. we now know today that one of those names happens to be a society counterintelligence officer. mr. gallego: on june 7, 2016, at 6:46 p.m., donald trump jr. writes great. ul man forth, campaign boss, my brother-in-law, jared kushner, and me. 725 fifth avenue, 25th floor which is trump tower. mr. lieu: on june 8, the next day, 10:48 a.m., goldstone writes

best, rob goldstone. bring in our senior white house correspondent jim acosta and chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. jim, these e-mails, very, very explicit. this is a bombshell. >> no question. listen, you have the senate and house intelligence committees, fbi, special counsel, for weeks and months been investigating the question of collusion, cooperation, whatever you want to call it. to this point, that's been based on the existence of meetings, right? perhaps unusual in number. perhaps unusual that they are with russian officials or others tied to the russian government. and unusual as well that many were undisclosed. but the reason of those meetings until this point wasn't know. the meetings happened. the question, why did it happen? with one meeting you have the intention. damaging information on hillary clinton supplied by the russian government. not just russians. by the russian government pnd a and designed to help donald trump. written down in e-mail form to the president's son a

music publicist rob goldstone. he said an attorney had quote, information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful to your father. talking about hillary clinton and donald trump. and more than that, the e-mails indicate that donald trump jr. was told in advance that this attorney was with or representing the russian government. as for that attorney, he met with my colleague, keir simmons, who tracked her down in moscow, in an exclusive interview she denied any connection with the kremlin but in an apparent contradiction to what donald trump jr. has said, the attorney says the premise for the meeting was to discuss sanctions. >> reporter: what was the purpose of that meeting? >> translator: i never knew who else would be attending the meeting. all i knew that mr. donald trump jr. was willing to meet with me. i could recognize the young gentleman who was only present in the meeting for probably the first seven to ten minutes and then he stood up and left the room. it was mr

i would want to talk to rob goldstone as well.now, he of course is a british national so you can't just use your subpoena to pull him in. but we do have treat business the british government. so an interview could be arranged. so i would want to find out as much as i can. i want to find out about what happened afterwards. were there any subsequent e-mails? i would be using a search warrant to try to get the content of the e-mails between donald trump, jared kushner, goldstone, all of these players. >> to barbara's point about what happened after, that's the story that we're getting which seems a little unresolved. so let's say, if everything that donald junior is saying is true. it is weird and disappointing and doesn't involved what he thought. do you just let it go? do you say what the heck was that? you wasted my time. you made me look bad in front of paul manafort. there's a lot you can imagine would happen after that other than a shrug. >> there are sole unanswered questions. when he gets e-mail about the effort to help your

so to review, goldstone tellingdtelling don jr. that the russian government is working to influence the u.s. election. don jr. seems to salivate. the e-mail chain continues as a meeting gets on the books. goldstone identifies the person flying to the u.s. to provide said incriminating information as a russian government attorney. remember, don jr. yesterday denied knowing she had any ties to the kremlin. then finally, don jr. forwards the exchange to none other than paul manafort and jared kushner. again, just this weekend, donald trump jr. said he told kushner and paul manafort nothing of the substance of the meeting. and we have just received the first comments from the president through his spokesperson, sarah huckabee sanders. quote, myon is a high-quality person and i applaud his transparency. unquote. so, is it rookie politics by donald trump's eldest son or a smoking gun in the collusion case surrounding trump and his inner circle? a team of reporters here to help us answer that question. joining us at the table. our panel.

e-mails was lying, which i feel really -- we have to hear from goldstone. he could be lying, but wow, what a doozy he spun with all this detail. if that's true that he's lying, does it all go away or does the intent to take that meeting still matter? >> there are two pieces. that suggests to me that anything past the meeting was not significant in terms of the election. i don't think that's a huge issue here. the issue here is there's an e-mail chain where somebody in the campaign -- in this case the president's son knew the person walking through the door or thought the person walking through the door represented official government circles from a hostile power. all this -- the rest of this is who knew what when, did don junior think this was a good idea, 13 months ago, i don't think that's the story. you cannot walk into a meeting with someone you thinks a representative of a hostile foreign power and accept information about a rival political party in the united states. you can't do it. >> julia pays, how is the white house dealing with all of this? we k

-- >> through rob goldstone. >> rob goldstone is the intermediary here. when you get an e-mail like this. don jr. didn't say, are you kidding? both the intermediary and the family to him. so it would seem to me that if he got this kind of e-mail, he might have told his father. in fact, rob goldstone said, i wanted to send it to you first. and don jr. never said, don't pass it along to my father. we have don junior's word and his attorney's word about this. and so i think this is a -- this is something that the special counsel is going to have to look at and get an answer to. >> you spoke with donald trump jr.'s attorney this evening. what did he have to say of note? >> he basically said that his client did nothing wrong. he didn't break any laws. he said the fbi has not reached out for an interview or reached out for any other documentation, but he said that don would do so. don jr. would hand over anything that the fbi would like. and he said when it comes to these accusations that he could have violated campaign finance law by his willingness to accept

what goldstone seemed to be implying? >> donald jr.,: as i recall, it was all about this email coordination. in the end, it wasn't about that at all. >> sean: lets go into the meeting. you meet at trump tower. the meeting was described earlier today on the today show. did she describe it accurately? >> donald jr.,: i think it was fairly accurate. i was a little surprised about me pressing information but it was hey, we have information. if there was some small talk. i don't remember what it wants. was nonsensical. then he quickly went on to a story about russian adoption and how we could possibly help. really, that's where we shut it down. it was like wait a second, what does this have to do with -- >> sean: had you heard about the magnitsky act? >> donald jr.,: i hadn't heard about it until that day. we were all there. i was sitting there listening as a courtesy to my acquaintance who had set up the meeting. and in his own words, you can hear what he said. he played it earlier. he apologized to me walking out of the meet

obviously, we don't know whether rob goldstone was trying to blow smoke donald trump jnr‘s way goldstoneoke donald trumpjnr‘s way by overpromising or he was serving as a conduit for the russian government to pass on damaging information to hillary clinton. we are seeing rob goldstone's e—mails here but donald trump junior seems very interested in whatever rob goldstone has to say and the possibility that the russian government itself could be providing help to his father's campaign. he took the meeting, but only that but he invited the chair of the campaign, paul manafort, and jared kuschner, donald trump's son—in—law, to sit in as well. it is quite explosive. we had word of these e—mails last night in the new york times but to see the actual words and exchange between these people, and exchange between these people, andi and exchange between these people, and i noticed to see jared kuschner and i noticed to see jared kuschner and paul manafort were cc to at the end of the e—mail so they knew about them, all of that has to be very concerning to the trump administration. yes and jared kus

goldstone then tells trump jr. that at his associate's request a russian government attorney wants to meet with him to start a dialogue with the campaign. she's flying over from moscow. trump jr. then ccs campaign chief paul manafort and trump's son-in-law jared kushner on this entire exchange the day before they all met with her. trump jr. insists that the information she gave them in that meeting was vague and nonsensical. he says there was no further contact or any follow-up of any kind. he's also suggested that the whole thing may have been a ruse so she could push a pet project related to u.s.-russia foreign policy. even if that is accurate and there's ample reason to doubt that it is, this e-mail chain clearly indicates that the trump campaign was willing to coordinate with russia to gain an edge. trump jr. says today that he released these documents in order to be totally transparent. and hours later the president put out a statement through his press office saying, "my son is a high-quality person and i app

goldstone to set up the meeting. "emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. this is obviously very high-level and sensitive information, but it's part of russia and its government's support for mr. trump." the exclusive footage provides a closer look at the friendship between the two families and could help explain donald trump jr.'s willingness to take the meeting arranged by goldstone. at dinner, trump can be heard boasting to the men about his work on the miss universe pageant. the next day in front of reporters, trump spoke grandly about the promise of taking miss universe to russia. >> i think it's a great thing for both countries. and honestly, they really wanted it in russia very badly, politically they wanted it. >> reporter: trump predicting his pageant could even bring russia and the u.s. closer. >> it really is a great country. it's a very powerful country. it's a country that we have a relationship, but not a great relationship, and i think that this can certainly help

amin agalarav told goldstone to set up the meeting. quote, amin just called and told me to contact you with some very high level information, but it's part of russia and its government support for mr. trump. the footage describes a closer look at a friendship fwebetweene two families and could explain donald trump taking the meeting. you can hear trump boast about his work with the miss universe pageant. the next day in front of reporters, trump spoke grandly about the promise of taking miss universe to russia. trump predicting his pageant could even bring russia and the u.s. closer. >> it really is a great country, it's a very powerful country. it's a country that we have a relationship with, and i think this could certainly help that relationship. >> reporter: investigators plan to examine the trump tower meeting and the e-mails. on fox news tuesday, donald trump jr., who does not appear in the 2013 video, said he had limited knowledge of the russian family. >> i met them once or twice and maintained a casual relationship there, talk

the e—mail continues: the meeting was set up by a british publicist, rob goldstone. lawyer today denied any links with the kremlin. she was asked why those at the meeting thought she was going to deliver any information on hillary clinton. translation: it is possible they were looking for such information, they wanted it so badly. but the reaction from politicians today shows that these drip, drip revelations are proving damaging to the trump administration. it's serious and this is a serious situation and one that is a long way from over. it doesn't appear that when they had information that this person might be connected with the russian government or a russian national, that they didn't immediately call the fbi. this is very problematic. we can't allow foreign governments to reach out to anybody's campaign and say we'd like to help you. it is a non—starter. what does president trump make of it all? well, today, he says that his son was a high—quality person and praised his transparency. but the president is also said to be frustrated but after today the questions

goldstone a little known publicist expected to donald trump, jr. back to the miss universe pageant providing a connection between donald trump and this russian oligarch that is connected to vladimir putin. it is a connect web. >> the attorney denies they are anyway connected to the kremlin, just want to point that ought and denied that either men had a meeting with the russian prosecutor which is what goldstone indicated in that e-mail so on the record they're publicly denying it. we have news on the special counsel robert mueller investigation what can you tell us about that. >> my colleagues here telling me tonight in light of this e-mail and preiously undisclosed meeting special counsel robert mueller will investigate that meeting and e-mails involved. it is interesting that the special counsel didn't know about this meeting until very recently and the source was a refiling of jared kushner's security clearance form fs86 the first time he filed listed no meetings and then file ltd again listed some of them and then resubmitted with meeting, and

s e-mail with publicist rob goldstone. he is the guy who set up this meeting on behalf of the pop star client. and then there is his father who has a connection to putin, both of whom have a connection to president trump. my question is, all of this will likely expand the scope of this investigation, will it? >> well, it has to. i mean, here you have in plain language in e-mails representations that the russian government was seeking to aid the trump campaign. so, that begs all sorts of questions, leave aside how don junior and paul manafort and jared kushner reacted to the meeting. you have rob goldstone, who i spoke to for hours back in march, stating flatly that the kremlin, through the agularofs, business partners of donald trump, going back to that 2013 miss universe pageant, were seeking to assist trump's candidacy by providing damaging information about hillary clinton. so, how extensive was this russian government effort? was this the sole message, the sole effort to provide information to tilt the scale, or was it

between jared kushner and goldstone. goldstone spells out that the russians were offering quote official documents and informations that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful to your father. it's part of russia and its government's support mr. trump end quote. i can also send this info to your father via rhona, that's trump's personal assistant. and if it's what you say, i love it especially later in the summer. this evening donald trump jr. speaking out about the emails saying in retrospect he would have done things differently. let's listen just a few minutes ago. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> no. it was such a nothing. there was nothing to tell. i mean i wouldn't have even remembered it except you start scouring through the stuff. >> did you ever meet with any other person from russia that you know? >> i don't know. i've probably met other people in russia. not in the form of a formalized meeting because why would i? how busy we were, this was a courtesy

the information goldstone wrote was comeing from emin agalorov, a russian pop star whose father is a wealthy oligarch with ties to vladimir putin. mr. trump had worked with both men to bring the miss universe pageant to moscow in 2013. >> moscow is going to get hotter. >> reporter: four days after the initial e-mail, goldstone sent another message. this one said a russian government attorney was flying over from moscow. trump, jr., agreed to meet with her on june 9th and said campaign chairman paul manafort and the president's son-in-law jared kushner would also attend. they were copied on trump, jr.'s, response. then candidate trump was at trump tower at the time of the meeting. the white house says he was unaware it was going on and only learned about it recently. less than a week after the meeting, the democratic national committee accused russia of hacking into its computer servers. the following month wikileaks began releasing stolen dnc e-mails. the russian government lawyer, natalia veselnitskaya, denied that she ever promised compromising information about clinton or that she

goldstone? >> donald jr.,: no. well, goldstone, but not since this transpired. >> sean: this is a hypothetical. inhi any point in your mind did don jr. have a siren saying "okay, i go back to the first email about russia, russian government..." did you ever think maybe this not be -- >> donald jr.,: like i said, in retrospect, i probably would have done things a little differently. again, this is before the russia mania and building it up in the press. was opposition research. maybe concrete evidence to all the stories i'd been hearing about. that were probably underreported for years, not just during the campaign. it really went nowhere. it was apparent that this was not what the meeting was actually about. >> sean: let me ask a hypothetical. maybe you have thought about it since. since this has become russia collusion, et cetera. did you ever meet with any other person from russia that you know? >> donald jr.,: i don't even know. i have probably met with other people from russia. not in the context of a formalize

goldstone goes on to write about their mutual acquaintance, russian pop singer emin agalarov.in just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. the crown prosecutor of russia met with his father aras this morning and, in their meeting, offered to provide the trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful to your father." ( coughing ) sorry. i got a little cough because of this smoking gun. ( laughter ) ( applause ) ( piano riff ) goldstone could not be clearer that this was going to be shady stuff. jrvetle "this is obviously very high-level and sensitive information." yes, obviously. that's why he encrypted his communique with an algorithm that cyber security experts call "email." ( laughter ) okay? >> jon: getting all in there. >> stephen: and just a reminder, these emails were leaked by donald trump, jr. he is his own deep throat. he's deep-throating himself. ( laughter ) it's impressive. it's impressive. ( applause ) you don't see that every day. >> jon

josh, supporters will say goldstone -- he is a music promoter trying to help his friends. critics pointing to potential collusion, cooperation and even perhaps conspiracy. or is this just a naive move? >> the first move of american politics is never taken a meeting with a representative of a foreign adversary who apparently was promising information about hillary clinton, about his political opponent. this is about as much of a smoking gun as you can get and the fact that donald trump junior released these emails was only because "the new york times" was working on a big story that would be revealing the contents of these emails. it's a very big a bombshell, you have these emails, you have the back and forth of trump, jr., expecting to get some kind of information from what he perceives as someone representing russian interest. >> eric: let's take a look at what the email actually says. "the crown prosecutor of russia met with his father, and in the meeting offered to revive the trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and

what goldstone seemed to be implying? >> donald jr.,: as i recall, it was all about this email coordination. in the end, it wasn't about that at all. >> sean: lets go into the meeting. you meet at trump tower. the meeting was described earlier today on the today show. did she describe it accurately? >> donald jr.,: i think it was fairly accurate. i was a little surprised about me pressing information but it was hey, we have information. if there was some small talk. i don't remember what it wants. was nonsensical. then he quickly went on to a story about russian adoption and how we could possibly help. really, that's where we shut it down. it was like wait a second, what does this have to do with -- >> sean: had you heard about the magnitsky act? >> donald jr.,: i hadn't heard about it until that day. we were all there. i was sitting there listening as a courtesy to my acquaintance who had set up the meeting. and in his own words, you can hear what he said. he played it earlier. he apologized to me walking out of the meet

shot goldstone goes on to say this is very high level and etc so don jr appears to be very pleased at this information and we now know that the meeting arranged by goldstone brought a russian attorney natalia vassal and its guy at presumably to discuss clinton information but not the billionaire or his son and as it turns out natalia wanted to discuss the magnitsky act and help ease sanctions on that which affects russian orphans being adopted to the united states but the media continues to label natalia as some sort of russian operative obviously all of the trump campaign statements that there were no contacts with the russian government are now false and. no longer operative as they used to say during watergate. for the russian government. do you have connections to grossly gone. yet you heard it right there from the horse's mouth and we don't need a translator for that prime example of the press continuing to push this narrative alone without any proof or any other evidence that this poor woman is part of the russian government already guilty in the court of public opinion along wi

goldstone writes, let me strak him down. what number can he call. okay.on stage in moscow, but should be off within 20 minutes, so i'm sure he could call. that was at 3:43 p.m. on june 6th. raising the question whether a phone call took place during that time. around 24 hours later, goldstone sent another e-mail saying evan asked i schedule a meeting with you and the russian government attorney. i believe you are aware of the meeting. so how else would he be aware of that meeting? >> i really can't speak to what rob goldstone was thinking or what he wrote or why. but i'll tell you again that that call didn't happen. i don't know if there was someone else who spoke to donald trump jr. about this perspective meeting but it wasn't my client and i don't know where mr. goldstone got his information from, but it's just categorically incorrect. >> i spoke to him on the minute ago and he reiterated that. he said there was no phone call that took place before or after that meeting with either. we have reached out to don junior's attorney and we are waiting to see

that's goldstone, connection to the russians.iece about this today outlieping this cast of characters. just run us through that as quickly as you can. >> i'll try. goldstone is a talent manager, a brit -- >> talent manager with no talent as he just dell monstrated on t deck of that ship. >> no comment. but he managed a pop star, pop singer, not such a star, very active in russia. his father happened to be a billionaire oligarch developer. who has been honored the order of order by putin for all of the great construction work he he has done in russia. both of them partnered up with donald trump to bring miss universe to moscow in 2013. that was donald trump's only successful venture ever in russia. he tried for decades to do business there. that's the only one that panned out. at the end of it, the end of it, he was talking with them about doing a trump tower and donald trump jr and ivanka and others worked with goldstone to try to find a location in moscow to do this. and eventually it fizzled out like a lot of his other projects

>> translator: no. >> so according to rob goldstone, this british p.r.om wee2 entertainment, his company, on behalf of the father and son, the father a billionaire, his son this pop star who goes by the first name emin, and, again, they were close business partners with t donald trump during the miss universe contest here in moscow in 2013, and in interviews on russian state tv just last year, the son, emin, said he's still in very close contact with donald trump jr. that they text message each other all the time. that he had had ivanka trump in his office here in moscow and according to one of president trump's tweets dating back to 2013, he had been in talks with the father to build a trump tower here in moscow. that's a project that was never completely fulfilled. dana? >> thank you so much for that report. i want to bring back jim sciutto and jeff zeleny. jim sciutto, you cover national security. the intelligence world. have you found anybody who thinks that it's plausible that this russian lawyer was not connected to the kremlin? i haven't. >> well,

the president's son replied "if it is what you say, i love it." ♪ the information goldstone wrote wasssian pop star whose father is a wealthy oligarch with ties to vladamir putin. mr. trump worked with both men to bring the miss universe pageant to moscow in 2013. >> moscow is going to get hotter. >> four days after the initial e-mail, goldstone sent another message. government attorney was flying over from moscow. trump jr. agreed to meet with her on june 9th and said campaign chairman paul manafort and the president's son-in-law, jared kushner would attend. they were copied on trump jr.'s response. then candidate trump was at trump tower at the time of the meeting, but the white house says he was unaware it was going on only learned about it recently. less than a week after the meeting, the democratic national committee accused russia of hacking into its computer servers. the following month. wikileaks began releasing stolen dnce-mails. the russian government lawyer, natalia veselnitskaya denied she ever promised compromising information or works for the kremlin. >> i do not represe

as a publicist it was goldstone who reached out to donald trump jr for a meeting with this attorney for more on this we're joined tonight by the attorney for the. family scott scott good to have you with us tonight pre-show your time thanks for having me what's the biggest misunderstanding surrounding this story as you see it. i think there's quite a few misunderstandings let me let me try to highlight the at the top few one there is this whole misconception about this lawyer and her relationship to the russian government our understanding was then and is now that this lawyer natalia is a private practitioner who represents private clients and has no connection to the russian government second of all there's a misconception that mr. of met with russian prosecutors to obtain information about hillary clinton for use in the u.s. election that meeting never happened mr aguilar of never had any communications with the russian government officials about hillary clinton or about the u.s. election campaign so how did this go haywire. it's a good question and when when we saw the e-mails fo