Special Counsel has determined identity of eighth person in Donald Trump Jr.’s Russia meeting
That didn’t take long. After the media determined that an unidentified eighth person attended Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with Russian government representatives, and Trump Jr.’s attorney gave away that the person was a U.S. citizen, Robert Mueller and his Special Counsel’s office have already determined the person’s identity and begun asking questions of that person.
The bad news, if you’re a gawker: the Special Counsel isn’t publicly saying who that eighth person is, for now. In fact the only one talking is that person’s attorney, Scott Balber, who says that he’s not identifying the name of his client because the Special Counsel doesn’t the integrity of its investigation interfered with (source: CNN). But Balber is also the attorney for Aras and Emin Agalarov, the Russian father and son who are alleged to have helped arrange the meeting to begin with. So this further suggests that the eighth person is one of their employees or associates, which has long been posited.
However, this doesn’t mean that there were only eight people in the meeting. The participants originally tried to lead the public to believe that there were only four people in attendance: Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and the Russian government lawyer. Then after questions about who would have translated the meeting, it was admitted that there were five people present including a translator. Then after more digging, it was determined that a former Soviet spy was also in the room, along with Rob Goldstone, who helped arrange the meeting. That was seven people. Now suddenly we’re at eight. So you know what comes next.
Palmer Report has been able to confirm that Reince Priebus showed up at Trump Tower the morning of the meeting, which strongly points to him having attended (link). And comments about the Secret Service made by Donald Trump’s attorney suggest that he may have attended as well. So we’re probably looking at a lot more than eight people at the meeting by the time it’s all tallied.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report