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The Sunday Times November 19, 2017 3 NEWS deal to bring the 2013 Miss Universe con- test to Moscow. He adds: “I can’t com- ment about the contents of the Steele dossier, but I can tell you there were only a very few hours during a very busy schedule when Trump was back in his [hotel] room.” It was three years later that the 56-year-old publicist sent the now notori- ous email on behalf of his client, Emin Agalarov, a Russian pop star, who said his oligarch father had “incriminating” material about Hillary Clinton. “I should have listened to that little voice in my head,” says Goldstone. “I remember specifically saying to Emin: ‘You know, we probably shouldn’t get involved in this’.” Goldstone duly approached Trump Jr offering “official” Russian documents that he claimed “would be very useful to your father”. Trump Jr swiftly replied: “If it’s what you say it is, I love it.” The meeting that followed was attended by senior Trump campaign figures and a Russian delegation that included Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer with Kremlin ties. It ended inconclusively and Goldstone believes the Russians used the promise of dirt on Hillary as a “pretext” to lobby the Trumps on unrelated issues. “If I’m guilty of anything, and I hate the word guilty, it’s hyping the message Philip Sherwell One day he may come to be remembered as the British music publicist who brought down Donald Trump, but Rob Goldstone insists he was merely a “useful idiot” whose contacts with a Russian pop star accidentally plunged him into an American presidential scandal. “I never thought in a million years that an email I wrote to [Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr] . . . would be examined by the world many times over,” Goldstone tells The Sunday Times Magazine today in an exclusive interview after his emergence earlier this year as a central figure in the US justice department investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presi- dential election. Goldstone left his home in New Jersey earlier this year for a planned trip to the Far East before the publication of the June 2016 email in which he offered to set up a meeting with a Russian lawyer with Kremlin ties who supposedly possessed “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Demo- cratic rival. “There are people saying that I’ve run away or I’m some sort of fugitive,” says Goldstone, who gave the interview on condition that his exact whereabouts were not disclosed. “But I want to share what I know . . . I’m keen to talk to [the justice department] and put my recollec- tion of events in the public record.” He has accepted an invitation to meet the investigation team headed by Robert Mueller, the former FBI director. When the exchange of emails between Goldstone and Trump Jr surfaced last July it transformed the Russian collusion saga from a lingering nuisance into a potential crisis. The new US president had already been embarrassed by claims in a so-called dirty dossier — compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British spy — that he cavorted with prosti- tutes during a stay at the Ritz- Carlton hotel in Moscow in 2013. Trump dismissed the allega- tions as “fake news” by “sick people”. Goldstone was working with Trump at the time on a British ‘useful idiot’ comes clean over Trump and dirt on Hillary In his first interview the publicist at the heart of the storm over the president’s links to Russia admits he ‘puffed up’ the key email JONATHAN ERNST Rob Goldstone, left, made an offer to find ‘dirt’ on Hillary Clinton for Donald Trump and going the extra mile for my clients,” he says. He claims he “puffed up” the wording of his email to secure the meet- ing with Trump. The US president has dismissed the collusion allegations and denounced the investigation as a “witch-hunt”. Goldstone says he does not know whether there was any other collusion with the Russians: “But I’m sure I wasn’t part of it.” THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE ‘I never thought my email would be read by the world’ Pages 8-17 Plastic pollution is killing whales Whales feeding in the deep ocean, far from land, have been filmed battling with plastic pollution, finding themselves tangled in bags and with their calves dying from poisoning. The BBC team behind tonight’s Blue Planet II episode sought out short-finned pilot whales in the Atlantic which are renowned for forming close family units. What the team found was a mother carrying a dead calf in its mouth with other adults refusing to feed in apparent sympathy. Another whale in tonight’s episode was pictured with a plastic bag wrapped around a fin. Dr Paul Jepson, a wildlife health expert at the Zoological Society of London and an adviser to Blue Planet II, said plastic ingested by mother whales had been shown to turn their milk toxic: “We know chemical pollutants can cause the death of a calf. Ingesting plastic may increase the accumulation of pollutants in the whales themselves.” Dr Andrew Brownlow, a veterinary pathologist who works with the Scottish Marine Mammal Stranding Scheme, said: “Some populations of whales and dolphins are among the most contaminated animals on the planet. This could be having disastrous consequences on their long-term viability.” @jonathan__leake Jonathan Leake Plastic infests even deep seas in some sort of health and social care, and for a while now the epilepsy has been holding her back.” However, recently Gaia’s online posts had become more troubling and erratic, with mentions of “pedos” and “bisexual predators”. At the time of her disappearance she was reported to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after learning that a man she was afraid of was due to leave prison. Gaia had also been suffering near-daily seizures and doctors had advised that she was at risk of sudden death from her condition. Gaia was not thought to have her medication with her Police officers searching for Gaia Pope have said they are “confident” that a body discovered in a clifftop field near Swanage yesterday afternoon is that of the missing teenager. The discovery came after hundreds of volunteers scoured the Dorset countryside near the home of the 19-year-old, an epilepsy sufferer who was last seen 12 days ago. The body was found at about 3pm yesterday by specialist search teams near the coastal path and field where items believed to be her clothing were discovered last week. There has yet to be any formal identification but police were offering support to her family last night. In a tearful television interview her sister Clara, 21, said Gaia was “the absolute light of my life, so beautiful, so emotionally wise and intelligent”. Gaia’s cousin, Marienna Pope-Weidemann, added: “This afternoon the emergency services found Gaia’s body. Our little bird has flown but will always be with us.” Detective Superintendent Paul Kessell of the Dorset police major crime investigation team, said the coroner had been informed about the discovery of a body, describing the cause of death as “unexplained”. Clothes matching those Gaia was wearing — a red checked shirt, grey-and-white leggings and white trainers — had been found at Durlston country park on Thursday. Before yesterday’s discovery her father, Richard Sutherland, had addressed volunteers after more than 300 people turned out to search for her, thanking them for their “heartwarming efforts”. Earlier, her mother, Natasha Pope, an actress who has appeared in television dramas, had posted on social media that she still had hope her daughter would be found alive. The family had set up a Find Gaia Facebook group to spread the message beyond the immediate area, but in some cases the sightings turned out to be her twin sister Maya or Clara. Gaia’s social media profiles revealed a bubbly character who was, according to her father, a “typical teenager”. Sutherland said last week that his daughter had “a great spirit, a big heart”, adding: “She is a very loving girl. She had great ambitions in her life to be in nursing or Mary O’Connor on the day she went missing, November 7. Her family home was in Langton Matravers, a village with a population of less than 1,000, but she had been staying with her aunt in nearby Swanage at the time. An hour before she disappeared Gaia was captured on CCTV buying ice cream at a garage. She then returned to her aunt’s home but left at about 3.45pm without her phone and was filmed soon afterwards running through the town towards Manor Gardens. Last week detectives arrested three members of the same family from Manor Gardens: Rosemary Dinch, 71, her son, Paul Elsey, 49, and her 19-year-old grandson, Nathan Elsey, a former schoolfriend of Gaia. All three were released pending further investigation. Dinch and Nathan Elsey were arrested after Dinch said in a television interview that the missing girl had been in her home on the afternoon of her disappearance and seemed to be in a distressed state. She said Gaia had fled the first-floor flat and left her jacket behind. Paul Elsey was released late on Friday without charge. Paul Elsey’s father, Greg Elsey, who is separated from Dinch, described the police handling of the investigation as “terrible” this weekend, adding: “My family has totally been the victim of a witch-hunt. They should start looking elsewhere.” He sought to clarify comments he had made in an interview last week in which he said his son “didn’t like Gaia”, insisting that he had meant her family as a whole rather than Gaia in particular. “Paul is not necessarily private but if he doesn’t like people he just won’t get involved with them; he keeps out of it. He was like that with their family,” Elsey said. Heartache as police believe body found in field is Gaia Gaia, left, with her twin sister Maya and older sister Clara Gaia filmed on garage CCTV an hour before she disappeared Langton Matravers SWANAGE Last sighting on November 7 1 mile Remains were discovered near a coastal path and field where items of clothing were found on Thursday
