Robert Ian Goldstone (born 3 December 1960) is a British publicist, music manager, and former tabloid journalist who gained international attention for his activities during the 2016 American presidential election campaign.[1]
Early life and career
Goldstone was born in Whitefield, Bury, Greater Manchester,[2] where his father was a founding member of the Hillock Hebrew Congregation. He attended Delamere Forest School in Cheshire and Heys Boys' County Secondary School in Prestwich. He left school at age 16 to become a trainee sports reporter at the Jewish Gazette.[3] He then worked for the Radcliffe Times and, later, for the Birmingham Evening Mail[2][4][5] then in the newsroom at Birmingham's BRMB Radio.
While working as a print journalist for the Australian Associated Press (AAP), Goldstone became the only journalist to travel with Michael Jackson on his 1987 Australian BAD tour.[2][4][5]
On 7 June 2016, on behalf of Emin Agalarov, Goldstone e-mailed Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr., to request a meeting between the younger Trump and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya (referred to in Goldstone's e-mail as a "Russian government attorney").[8][9] According to Goldstone's email, Agalarov wanted to "provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information" that would help Donald Trump's campaign and damage the campaign of his rival, Hillary Clinton.[8] Trump Jr., replied immediately: "If it's what you say[,] I love it[,] especially later in the summer."[10]
The existence of the meeting was reported in July 2017. Some news outlets took the meeting as evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.[13][14]
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Goldstone claimed: "When people said that [I was part of some Russian plot] I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. That doesn't mean that maybe there wasn't any Russian interference or Trump campaign collusion in other ways. I don't know. But I'm sure I wasn't part of it."
