Now that the Mueller investigation has concluded, Russian pop star and Trump Tower meeting organizer Emin Agalarov feels free to talk, he said in an interview with Russian outlet The Bell.
Agalarov, known in the United States for his bizarre links to Trump, rambled on about a wide-range of topics, ranging from a quixotic attempt Trump apparently made to meet Vladimir Putin while at the 2013 Miss Universe competition in Moscow to Agalarov’s role in the Trump Organization’s first attempt to build a Trump Tower Moscow after the Miss Universe pageant.
“My position was this,” said the 39-year old pop star. “We planned to build 14 towers, so why not name one of them after Trump?”
He added that he had signed a letter of intent and an NDA with the Trump Organization, before negotiations “gradually came to nothing.”
Agalarov partnered with Trump for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.
“It was a loss-making event,” he recalled. “We lost around $2 million.”
He added that Trump had asked the Agalarovs if they had invited Vladimir Putin to the Miss Universe pageant.
“This is a completely natural request,” Agalarov said. “The organizers want the president to come, because it raises the status of the event.”
Agalarov added that they invited Putin through his press secretary, but the president couldn’t make it to the pageant because of a previously scheduled meeting with the King of Jordan.
Agalarov also confirmed a CNN report stating that he cancelled a U.S. tour in January at the last minute over fears he would be served with a subpoena upon arrival.
“Mueller didn’t scare me, I just didn’t want to sit in the U.S. until the investigation was completed,” Agalarov said, adding that he has scheduled a replacement U.S. tour for this upcoming fall.
The interview also covered the June 2016 meeting between Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Natalia Veselnitskaya, before which Trump Jr. was offered “dirt” on the Clinton campaign.
Agalarov told British producer Rob Goldstone to arrange the meeting, saying in the interview that his father, Aras, asked him to arrange a meeting with Trump’s people in New York.
He then said that the offer of “dirt” on Hillary Clinton was “bait” meant to get an earlier appointment.
“I think that some political points really may have been discussed at this meeting,” Agalarov said. “This woman, the lawyer, did not only have the Magnitsky list as part of her plans, as I understand. But I am outside of politics and don’t know the details.”
He went on to say that Goldstone told him it was “the most ridiculous meeting I have ever attended.”
“You understand, organizing a meeting isn’t some kind of exceptional story,” Agalarov added in the interview.
