Materials from Inquiry into Circumstances Surrounding Trump Tower Meeting 
 
 As a part of its oversight of the Justice Department’s enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and federal investigations into potential improper influence during the 2016 presidential election, the Senate Judiciary Committee conducted bipartisan staff interviews with and submitted written questions to witnesses regarding circumstances surrounding the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting. 
 
 The following witnesses were interviewed for this portion of the committee’s investigation: 
 
 Glenn Simpson (interviewed August 22, 2017) 
 
 Subsequent letters 
 
 ClarificationRequest (sent January 11, 2018) 
 
 Response (received January 18, 2018) 
 
 Donald J. Trump, Jr. (interviewed September 7, 2017) 
 
 Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze (interviewed November 3, 2017) 
 
 Supplemental Interview (interviewed March 23, 2018) 
 
 Anatoli Samochornov (interviewed November 8, 2017) 
 
 Rinat Akhmetshin (interviewed November 14, 2017) 
 
 Robert Goldstone (interviewed December 15, 2017) 
 
 Supplemental Interview (interviewed March 29, 2018) 
 
 The following witnesses declined to be interviewed by the committee, but submitted material relevant to the investigation: 
 
 Jared Kushner (material received July 24, 2017) 
 
 Paul Manafort (material received July 25, 2017) 
 
 The following witness provided responses to written questions from the committee 
 
 
 
 ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Russian lawyer who attended the meeting denies working on behalf of the Russian government 
 
 A Senate panel has released documents on a June 2016 meeting between top Trump campaign aides and a Russian delegation promising political "dirt". 
 
 The 2,500 pages of transcripts include interviews with Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, who met a Russian lawyer ahead of the 2016 election. 
 
 The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, denies working on behalf of Moscow. 
 
 The meeting is a part of an ongoing probe by the US Department of Justice into alleged Russia meddling in 2016. 
 
 What are the key things the documents tell us? 
 
 Donald Trump Jr confirmed he said 'I love it' 
 
 After the British music publicist who arranged the meeting, Rob Goldstone, suggested he had access to "official documents and information that would incriminate" Democrat Hillary Clinton, Mr Trump Jr replied in an email saying "if it's what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer". 
 
 In his Senate interview, Mr Trump Jr called his use of the phrase a "colloquial term" to say "great, thank you" for "potential information about an opponent" - namely, Hillary Clinton. 
 
 The BBC's Anthony Zurcher: Mr Trump Jr's "If it's what you say, I love it" email was one of the most explosive revelations when news of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting was first made public. 
 
 He says he doesn't recall how he felt about being told that Russia and its government wanted to support his father's campaign. He also doesn't go into detail about why he would love it "especially later in the summer". 
 
 Details of the emails and documents hacked from the Democratic National Committee server would first start becoming public, through Wikileaks and similar channels, later in the summer. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Donald Trump Jr's June meeting with the Russians has been a key event in the investigation of alleged Russian collusion 
 
 The blocked number question 
 
 Donald Trump Jr received a call from a blocked number on 6 June, three days before the meeting. 
 
 It lasted four minutes and came sandwiched between two phone calls Mr Trump Jr had with Emin Agalarov, an Azerbaijani-Russian businessman and music star who was pushing for the Trump Tower meeting. 
 
 When asked whether the call might have been his father, who is known to use a blocked number, Mr Trump Jr replied: "I don't know." 
 
 AZ analysis: Mr Trump Jr denies any communications with his father about the meeting before or after it took place. 
 
 But the day after the blocked call - and two days before the Trump Tower meeting - the elder Mr Trump announces that he would be making a "major speech" the following week "discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons". 
 
 That speech never happened. 
 
 Trump Jr said his father may have influenced misleading statement 
 
 Mr Trump Jr has repeatedly said he did not know of any direct involvement by his father in drafting an explanation for the meeting that subsequently turned out to be untrue. 
 
 But he did say "he may have commented through Hope Hicks", his former spokeswoman. 
 
 AZ analysis: Trump Jr's memory once again fails him, this time when it comes to exactly how involved his father was in helping craft the original - misleading - explanation that the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting was to discuss adoption policy. 
 
 That, certainly, was one of the topics - but as Trump Jr's email chain revealed, the presidential son was initially more interested in learning what dirt the Russians might have on Mrs Clinton. 
 
 Trump Jr doesn't completely close the door on Mr Trump's involvement in the White House damage control operation, however, suggesting that he may have offered edits on the original statement through his long-time communications aide, Hope Hicks. 
 
 The reason this is relevant is that it could be evidence that the president was engaging in a cover-up to hide the nature of the Trump Tower meeting. 
 
 Mr Mueller is reportedly reviewing the actions taken as part of his investigation into whether anyone in the White House - including the president himself - took actions that could constitute obstruction of justice. 
 
 Misleading the public or the media itself is not illegal, but attempts at deception could be evidence of a larger effort to conceal potentially incriminating actions. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The June meeting at Trump Tower involved Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort 
 
 Paul Manafort's notes are now available 
 
 Mr Manafort, who was the campaign manager at the time of the meeting, took brief notes during the meeting, which included words like "Offshore - Cyprus", "133m shares" and "Illici". 
 
 AZ analysis: What is "Illici"? Is it a typo? A super-secret society? Who or what are the "active sponsors of RNC" - and does RNC stand for the Republican National Committee? 
 
 The island nation of Cyprus pops up twice in the list, which is where American-born financier Bill Browder - also named on the list - conducted much of his Russia-related business. Browder, who renounced his US citizenship and currently lives in the UK, was a leading advocate for the Magnitsky Act through which the US Congress imposed sanctions on Russia for human rights violations. 
 
 Sergie Magnitsky was a Browder accountant who died in a Russian prison under questionable circumstances. 
 
 Manafort's list is cryptic, and he declined an opportunity to speak to Senate investigators. The former Trump campaign chair is currently under indictment by Robert Mueller on charges of money laundering and unregistered foreign lobbying conducted before he joined the Trump team. 
 
 Goldstone was pressured to set up the meeting 
 
 Mr Goldstone said his client Emin Agalarov, Azerbaijan's biggest pop star and son of Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov, pressured him into setting up the meeting with Mr Trump Jr - even after Mr Goldstone said it was "a really bad idea". 
 
 "He said, 'it doesn't matter. You just need to get the meeting.'" 
 
 AZ analysis: One of the things that comes through in the committee documents is exactly how eager the Agalarovs were to set up this meeting with the Trump campaign's senior staff. 
 
 Emin Agalarov exchanged voicemails with Mr Trump Jr. They may have actually spoken (Mr Trump Jr says his memory is fuzzy.) The Agalarovs also pushed Mr Goldstone to make the meeting happen. 
 
 Did that cause Mr Goldstone to exaggerate what the Russians had to offer Mr Trump Jr as far as information on Hillary Clinton went? Perhaps. 
 
 On the other hand, it seems like the Agalarovs - and Mr Goldstone - went through an awful lot of work to set up a meeting where Natalya Veslinstkaya and her associates only wanted to talk about adoption policy and sanctions imposed by the Magnitsky Act. ||||| As Donald Trump Jr. greeted his Russian-speaking guests in a conference room high atop Trump Tower in June 2016, he cut straight to the chase. 
 
 “I believe you have some information for us,” Trump Jr. said to a Russian lawyer visiting from Moscow, according to one of the attendees. 
 
 Trump Jr. had been expecting dirt on Hillary Clinton, provided as part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s presidential campaign — “potential information about an opponent,” he told congressional investigators, according to documents released Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. 
 
 Also anticipating damaging information on Clinton was Rob Goldstone, the colorful music promoter for a Russian pop star, who had set up the meeting. 
 
 “I expected there to be something that would make people react,” he told the committee. 
 
 Instead, lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya droned on about a 2012 law known as the Magnitsky Act that had imposed sanctions on Russia for human rights abuses and has been a particular vexation of Russian President Vladi­mir Putin. 
 
 [7 big things we just learned from the Trump Tower meeting transcripts] 
 
 The new details of the June 9, 2016, meeting in Trump Tower are drawn from 2,500 pages of congressional testimony and exhibits that paint a vivid picture of how Donald Trump’s erstwhile Russian business partners collided with his presidential campaign in a single 20-minute meeting that has been a key focus of investigations by three congressional committees and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. 
 
 The information in the transcripts is unlikely to shift public perceptions of the meeting. Republicans will point to the hours of testimony to argue Trump Jr. might have been unwise to accept the meeting but that he did not collude with the Russian government or get the dirt he expected. 
 
 Democrats will say that the episode shows Trump Jr. was willing to accept Russian help, prompting deep questions about his father’s election effort that have not been answered. 
 
 But the documents provide the public’s best understanding yet about the events that led up to the meeting, as well as the deep anxiety sparked in President Trump’s orbit a year later, when the meeting’s occurrence became public and contradicted Trump’s claims that no one on his campaign had interacted with Russians. 
 
 The release comes as congressional Republicans look to wrap up their parallel investigations. Already, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have issued a report finding no evidence that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia. Democrats fear the Senate Judiciary Committee could be preparing to do the same soon. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s leadership said Wednesday that its investigation has determined that the Kremlin sought to help Trump win the election but that it will be several more months before the committee addresses the question of collusion. 
 
 The roots of the Trump Tower meeting can be found three years earlier, when the Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant was held in Moscow, financed by Russian billionaire developer Aras Agalarov and his son, Emin, a pop singer. 
 
 During a boisterous planning meeting in Las Vegas and then over a weekend in Moscow, Trump became friendly with the Russian father-and-son duo, as well as Goldstone, Emin Agalarov’s sharp-tongued British manager. 
 
 Trump pushed repeatedly for the Agalarovs to get him a meeting with Putin in connection with the pageant, Goldstone testified. Trump’s demand, he said, was “the gorilla in the room that had to be addressed, but there seemed to be no answer to address it.” 
 
 An Agalarov employee told the committee that his boss tried to make the meeting happen, “secretly” requesting it through a Russian government employee. 
 
 At first, it looked as though Putin would accommodate Trump. But then the Russian president canceled at the last minute. Instead, he issued an invitation for Trump to attend the Sochi Olympics and a hopeful promise for the future. Putin “said he’d be happy to meet him there or at any future time,” Goldstone testified. 
 
 While in Moscow, Trump attended a reception at an exclusive restaurant, Nobu, where someone asked him his views on Russia, its leader and the economy. “I remember him saying specifically, ‘You have a very strong leader. Our leader is weak,’ ” Goldstone recalled. Asked whom Trump was referring to when he mentioned a weak leader, Goldstone answered: “President Obama.” 
 
 Following the pageant, Trump’s new Russian friends stayed in touch. In May 2015, the month before Trump declared his candidacy for the presidency, Goldstone brought Emin Agalarov to see the celebrity business executive in New York, where the men posed for photos. 
 
 “Maybe next time, I’ll be hosting you guys in the White House,” Goldstone recalled Trump saying. 
 
 A few months later, Goldstone invited Trump to attend a birthday party for Aras Agalarov, also at a Nobu in Moscow. After Trump’s assistant declined, citing his busy campaign schedule, Goldstone tried to sweeten his offer: If Trump attended, perhaps Agalarov could get him that meeting with Putin. Trump did not attend. 
 
 
 
 (Illustration by The Washington Post) 
 
 From Russia, the Agalarovs tracked the campaign. As Super Tuesday approached, Aras Agalarov wrote Trump of his appreciation for the candidate’s campaign trail statement that “the U.S. and Russia should work together more closely.” 
 
 “We would like to wish you success in winning this major ballot and further reinforcing your undisputed status as the front-runner for Republican nomination for U.S. Presidential Election,” Agalarov wrote. 
 
 Goldstone offered other help, passing along an offer of assistance from an executive at the Russian social media company VKontakte, or VK. 
 
 [Russian lawyer who met with Trump Jr. has long history of fighting sanctions] 
 
 By June 2016, Trump had clinched the Republican nomination. 
 
 That’s when Emin Agalarov asked Goldstone to get the meeting for the Russian lawyer. Repeatedly, Agalarov told Goldstone that she was “well-connected.” He also said she would bring “damaging information” about Democrats and Clinton, Goldstone recalled. 
 
 
 
 (Illustration by The Washington Post) 
 
 Goldstone testified that he immediately told Agalarov that he believed the meeting was a bad idea. But the Russian was insistent. 
 
 “He said, ‘It doesn’t matter. You just have to get the meeting,’ ” Goldstone said. 
 
 So Goldstone wrote Trump Jr. an enticing email. The lawyer, he wrote, had “very high level and sensitive information” that was part of “Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” 
 
 Trump Jr. responded: “If it’s what you say I love it.” And he quickly moved to schedule time and invite Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman, to attend. 
 
 It was a motley group that went to Trump Tower that June afternoon. Besides Goldstone, Agalarov sent a U.S.-based employee, Ike Kaveladze. A Clinton supporter, Kaveladze testified that he considered backing out of the meeting when he got wind that it was intended to hurt the Democrat’s campaign. 
 
 Veselnitskaya, who spoke little English, brought a translator, as well as Rinat Akhmetshin, a veteran of a Soviet counterintelligence unit who is now a Russian American lobbyist and who had been assisting her in efforts to change the Magnitsky Act. 
 
 Trump Jr. told the committee he did not remember Akhmetshin’s presence. Others remembered that he showed up wearing hot pink jeans and a hot pink shirt. 
 
 By consensus, the meeting did not go well. Trump Jr. said it was such a waste of time that he never bothered to inform his father. Goldstone quickly informed Emin Agalarov that it was the most embarrassing thing the pop star had ever asked him to do. 
 
 [Music promoter dangled possible Putin meeting for Trump during campaign] 
 
 The Russian speakers decamped to the Trump Bar just off the lobby on the first floor of Trump Tower. As they had a round of drinks, Aras Agalarov called Kaveladze from Moscow. Kaveladze handed his phone to Veselnitskaya so she could offer her thanks. 
 
 But later, when he was alone, Kaveladze spoke to his boss again. “I said it was complete loss of time,” he recalled. 
 
 By June 2017, when Trump was president and Mueller was investigating Russian interference in the election, Trump’s associates became concerned that the year-old meeting would become public. 
 
 The lawyers are “concerned because it links Don Jr. to officials from Russia — which he has always denied meeting,” Goldstone wrote in an email to Emin Agalarov on June 27. 
 
 Soon after, the New York Times reported the meeting, and lawyers and meeting participants scrambled to come up with an explanation for the encounter. 
 
 Trump himself contributed to an initial statement about the meeting released by his son, Trump Jr. told the committee. It misleadingly stated that it had been “primarily” about the adoption of Russian children by Americans. The Kremlin halted adoptions as retaliation for the Magnitsky Act. His statement did not mention the sanctions law or the offer of dirt on Clinton. 
 
 Shortly after the Times piece appeared, Goldstone fielded an unexpected call from The Washington Post while having lunch in Greece. Reporting the call to Trump lawyers, he assured them that he had offered a similar account. 
 
 “I said only that the meeting appeared to have been about adoption issues and was quickly terminated,” he wrote in an email at the time. 
 
 But within days, Trump Jr. released all of the emails Goldstone had sent him, generating intense scrutiny — and tension between Goldstone and his Russian client. 
 
 Goldstone testified that Emin Agalarov told him he should be pleased he had become so famous. 
 
 “You know, Jeffrey Dahmer was famous. I don’t think he got a lot of work out of it,” Goldstone told Agalarov in one phone call, before hanging up. 
 
 Tom Hamburger, Shane Harris, Sari Horwitz, Spencer Hsu, Julie Tate, Greg Miller, Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky, Ellen Nakashima, Jack Gillum, Josh Dawsey and Rachel Weiner contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 Who is Rob Goldstone, whose email to Trump Jr. on Russia caused a sensation? 
 
 Russian social media executive sought to help Trump campaign in 2016, emails show
– "These materials, taken in their entirety, provide the most complete public picture of the events surrounding the meeting to date," said Sen. Chuck Grassley in a statement Wednesday morning, per the BBC. Their entirety is a substantial one: The Senate Judiciary Committee released 2,500 pages of testimony and exhibits related to the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump's son and others with a Russian attorney—a meeting that's been a focus of Robert Mueller's probe. Music promoter Rob Goldstone testified that he told Donald Trump Jr. via email that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya had dirt on Hillary Clinton because his client, Russian pop star and developer Emin Agalarov, had been adamant about securing the meeting and because he was told Veselnitskaya was both "well connected" and had "damaging material," reports the Washington Post. Some initial takeaways: