Mueller apparently wants to interview the Russian pop star who organized 2016 Trump Tower meeting

(Image credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

published 2 August 2018

A Russian pop star may be the next lead in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Mueller has requested an interview with Emin Agalarov, the Russian singer who helped organize the June 2016 meeting between Trump affiliates and Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, NBC News has learned from Agalarov's lawyer.

Veselnitskaya possessed incriminating information on Hillary Clinton, Agalarov's father Aras wrote in an email to publicist Rob Goldstone, who passed the information on to Donald Trump Jr. President Trump's eldest son infamously responded with, "If it's what you say, I love it." Trump Jr., the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner, then-Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, and Veselnitskaya met in Trump Tower days later. Veselnitskaya said she was there to lobby against U.S. sanctions, and Trump Jr. later said he never got information on Clinton.

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Aras Agalarov sent the email to Goldstone, but Veselnitskaya told NBC News last year that son Emin played a key role in organizing the meeting. President Trump appeared in an Emin Agalarov music video in 2013, and the singer released a 2018 video parodying the Mueller investigation. The pop star's lawyer did not tell NBC News if Mueller wants to speak with Aras Agalarov, who's tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.