Politics
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci
- Just a few days after Anthony Scaramucci was named White House communications director, he reached out to a music publicist who helped set up a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer.
- "If we remain consistent and united I don't envisage any issues we can't ride out," Scaramucci wrote.
- Scaramucci says the email did not concern Goldstone's involvement in the controversial meeting.
Just a few days after Anthony Scaramucci was named White House communications director, he reached out to Rob Goldstone, a music publicist who set up a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer.
"I don't officially start until the 15th Rob. But I just wanted to drop you a line to say if you ever need to pick my brains then my door is always open," Scaramucci wrote in the July 23, 2017 email to Goldstone.
A few weeks prior, news broke that Goldstone had organized the June 9, 2016 meeting - attended by Donald Trump Jr., Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and several Russians - on the premise that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya would provide the Trump team with incriminating information about former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
After The New York Times reported on the meeting last July, Trump Jr. said Veselnitskaya did not ultimately provide damaging information on Clinton and that the discussion revolved around Russian adoption policy.
Scaramucci's email was released Wednesday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, as a part of roughly 1,800 pages of documents stemming from closed-door interviews about the controversial meeting.
"Obviously there is still pressure on all sides, but if we remain consistent and united I don't envisage any issues we can't ride out," Scaramucci wrote.
Scaramucci, who was fired less than two weeks after his hiring, said in a statement to CNBC that he was not referring to any Russia-related issues in his email.
"I can state declaratively that it had nothing to do with Russia because I had no involvement there," he said. "Moreover, I supplied all of my emails as requested by both the House and Senate and have never been asked to testify before the Mueller investigators or the House or the Senate."
Last July, Trump Jr. released emails between him and Goldstone in which Goldstone wrote that "the Crown prosecutor of Russia … 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."
The publicist added that the offer was "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."
Trump Jr. responded, "if it's what you say I love it."
Allan Smith contributed to this report.