Rob Goldstone, the British publicist behind the Trump Tower meeting, says Trump and his Russian pop star client were a ‘frat boy match’ when they first bonded years earlier
A British publicist behind the now infamous Trump Tower meeting says President Donald Trump and the Russian pop star who requested the meet-up were a ‘match made in frat boy heaven’ when they first bonded years earlier.
Rob Goldstone, who was Azerbaijan-born singer Emin Agalarov’s publicist, said Trump and the pop star made bets about having sex with beauty queens when they first met at a dinner in Las Vegas in June 2013.
The dinner was arranged to so they could come to an agreement about Trump having the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow that year with Agalarov’s billionaire father, Aras Agalarov, as the host.
Details of the meeting are included in Goldstone’s new book, ‘Pop Stars, Pageants & Presidents: How an Email Trumped My Life’, of which an excerpt was obtained by Yahoo News.
Speaking about the dinner, Goldstone wrote that ‘out of nowhere’, Trump said: ‘I’ll reduce the fee for the pageant by a million dollars if you tell me right now if you’ve slept with any of the contestants.’
Agalarov replied: ‘Mr Trump, I will add $5 million to the (licensing) fee if you tell me right now if you’ve slept with any contestants.’
Goldstone writes that Trump then called off the bet.
Rob Goldstone, who was Azerbaijan-born singer Emin Agalarov’s publicist, said Trump and the pop star made bets about having sex with beauty queens when they first met at a dinner in Las Vegas in June 2013. Trump and Agalarov are pictured above in 2015
‘I knew right then and there this was a match made in frat boy heaven,’ Goldstone wrote.
The whole idea behind hosting the beauty pageant in Moscow was to boost his client’s career because Agalarov would be the event’s music entertainment.
To win Trump over, Goldstone said he told him how much Russia loved him.
‘Not just for his business skills but for his praise and admiration for President Putin,’ Goldstone writes.
In his book, which is released on Tuesday, Goldstone also refers to the email he sent to Donald Trump Jr. three years later in a bid to set up a meeting with Agalarov.
Goldstone details how he got a call from Agalarov in June 2016 asking him to set up a meeting with ‘the Trumps’ because a ‘well-connected’ Russian lawyer had damaging information about Hillary Clinton’s campaign that they wanted to pass on.
He said his client didn’t give him much more information before he sent the email to Don Jr.
His email said that the attorney wanted to provide Trump with ‘official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary’ and would also 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 – helped along by Aras and Emin,’ the email continued.
Donald Trump, Aras Agalarov, Miss Universe 2012 Olivia Culpo and Emin Agalarov are pictured at the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas in 2013
Goldstone said he didn’t know if Putin was backing Trump but wanted to do whatever it took to get a response from Don Jr.
‘I would have told him I was bringing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the meeting if I thought it would get his immediate attention,’ he wrote.
Goldstone later questions in the book if he had been a ‘patsy’ or a ‘useful idiot’ in arranging the meeting that would end up becoming an investigative storm.
The publicist, who has since been questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee for the Russia investigation, wrote about the now infamous meeting between the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and members of Trump’s campaign, including Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort.
He said nothing came of it and, as previously reported, he told the president’s son the meeting was ’embarrassing.’
Goldstone has previously told investigators he set up the meeting under the expectation they had ‘smoking gun’ material on Clinton.
‘Yes, the smoking gun. I mean, I just sent somebody an email that says I’m setting up a meeting for someone that is going to bring you damaging information about somebody who was running to become the President of the United States,’ Goldstone previously testified.
‘So the smoking gun refers to damaging information?’ an investigator asked him.
‘Well, yes. I mean , that ‘s the basis on which I requested the meeting . So I thought there might be some – smoking gun might be a bit of a PR ridiculous word to use, but what I was saying was, I expected there to be something that would make people react, and, therefore, there was a reason to have made this request.’
Instead, what he got was a ‘labored’ presentation by the Russian lawyer.
When the meeting was over, Goldstone said he told Don Jr: ‘I really want to apologize. This was hugely embarrassing. I have no idea what this meeting was actually about.’
According to testimony by Goldstone, Veselnitskaya ‘infuriated’ Jared Kushner with her meandering presentation.
‘After a few minutes of this labored presentation, Jared Kushner, who is sitting next to me, appeared somewhat agitated by this and said, I really have no idea what you’re talking about. Could you please focus a bit more and maybe just start again?’ Goldstone testified.