Rob Goldstone, the British publicist who was instrumental in setting up the now infamous meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian government lawyer, now says he used “hot-button language” to “puff up” his email to Trump Jr. in order to get him to respond.
“I should have listened to that little voice in my head. But I never thought in a million years that an email I wrote in about three minutes to Don Jr. would be examined by the world many times over. I just needed to get him to respond,” Goldstone told The Sunday Times in London.
Goldstone, a former tabloid journalist who is now living in Thailand, is the manager for Emin Agalarov, an Azerbaijani-Russian entertainment artist who has boasted of having a close relationship with President Trump.
“If I’m guilty of anything, and I hate the word guilty, it’s hyping the message and going the extra mile for my clients. Using hot-button language to puff up the information I had been given,” Goldstone said. “I didn’t make up the details, I just made them sound more interesting.”
Goldstone exchanged a series of emails with Trump Jr. in 2016 to set up a meeting with a Russian lawyer who was said to have damaging information on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer,” Trump Jr. responded to Goldstone, regarding the meeting.
Goldstone, Trump Jr., White House adviser Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort all attended the meeting.
In the aftermath of disgraced Ohio state Rep. Wes Goodman resignation last week over an “inappropriate” incident in his Ohio office with another man, more revelations have emerged about Goodman’s apparent double life as a closeted gay man.
In public, Wesley Goodman was an up-and-coming conservative who championed pro-family and anti-LGBT causes and aspired to someday run for Congress.
In private, he exchanged salacious texts and emails with gay men he met on Capitol Hill, and sent sexually suggestive messages to young men he met through conservative circles who were too intimidated to publicly complain, according to three people who knew him when he worked in Washington.
Goodman’s double life ended this week when he resigned from the Ohio legislature after House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger was alerted to Goodman’s involvement in “inappropriate behavior” with a man in his state office in Columbus.
[snip]
Johnny Hadlock, then a staffer for another GOP congressman in Washington, said he met Goodman in 2010. Hadlock said he confided in Goodman that he was a closeted gay man and the two began exchanging text messages.
In an interview with cleveland.com, Hadlock described the messages as sexting and gay banter, and said he engaged in phone sex with Goodman.
“Wes never sexually harassed me — we both knew what we were doing and we were both fine doing it,” Hadlock said.
[snip]
Another conservative with Ohio ties told cleveland.com that Goodman engaged in predatory behavior toward younger men after leaving Jordan’s office, sending inappropriate material and propositioning them via text message and Facebook messenger.
The conservative operative said he’d target college kids who wanted to have him as a mentor and were scared to report his sexual advances because they didn’t want to damage their own careers.
[snip]
Another former GOP congressional staffer, Chris Donnelly, told cleveland.com that Goodman replied to a Craigslist post on a board for men seeking men, and the two had a sexual encounter in 2008. In a response shown to cleveland.com, an email account using the name Brady Murphey described himself as a “straight/curious” guy who needed to be discreet.
“Maybe we can hang and see what’s up, no expectations really,” the response said. “But your post seemed cool so let me know bro.”
Donnelly said Goodman was “all over Craigslist” and responded to several ads posted by Donnelly and other gay men.
“It became a running joke between me and my gay friends on Capitol Hill,” Donnelly said. “It’s not like it was some one-off thing.”
The Washington Postpublished a story on Friday that alleged two years ago, at an event headed up by anti-LGBT hate group leader Tony Perkins, Goodman invited an 18 year old to “crash” in his hotel room. When the teen woke up his pants were unbuttoned and Goodman was pulling his zipper down. Perkins apparently helped cover up the incident.
There’s really only one scenario where I think it’s appropriate to out someone and this is it. When a politician spends his career pushing anti-LGBT policies while privately getting a little something something on the side, that’s when it’s time to call folks out.
I feel for Goodman’s family and friends but this is truly the bed he made.
Journalist Caleb Hull says Goodman practically begged him to have sex with Goodman and/or his wife. Check out screen captures of messages this “family values” guy sent:
How can we look our neighbors, our parishioners, our colleagues, our partners, or our children in the eyes and tell them they are worth less than ensuring one political party keeps a Senate seat? How can we expect young Alabamians to have faith in their government or their church, when its leaders equivocate on matters as clear cut as sexual abuse?
A vote for Roy Moore sends the worst kind of message to Alabamians struggling with abuse: “if you ever do tell your story, Alabama won’t believe you.”
Or, worse, we’ll believe you but we just won’t care.
To be clear: it’s not only his record on women and children that disqualifies Moore. If we vote for Roy Moore, Alabama will also show that we don’t care about you if you’re gay or Muslim or Catholic. If you’re an atheist or an immigrant. We’ll show each other that we only care about Roy Moore’s definition of Alabama. And that there’s not room for the rest of us.
[snip]
What is disqualifying is the conduct of Roy Moore against women and children. It was disqualifying for his party leaders. It was disqualifying for Alabama’s senior senator. And it should be disqualifying for his state party.
By the various misdeeds, miscalculations and mistakes of its voters and leaders, Alabama has left itself with few options. Alabamians must show themselves to be people of principle, reject Roy Moore and all that he stands for.
There is only one candidate left in this race who has proven worthy of the task of representing Alabama. He is Doug Jones.
For a deep red state like Alabama, this is pretty stunning stuff. I highly recommend you read the entire editorial.
Cassidy, 67, was rushed to the hospital about three days ago and is in desperate need of a liver transplant. Both his liver and a kidney are failing, according to his rep.
“The Partridge Family” star’s health has been failing for more than two months, sources close to the family told TMZ, which was the first to report his hospitalization.
A rep for the actor said he was “currently conscious and surrounded by family,” but was previously induced in a coma. His rep told The News he was admitted to the hospital “either Wednesday or Thursday” for being “very ill.”
It is unclear what is causing his organs to shut down.
The Fort Lauderdale, Fla. resident revealed in February that he was diagnosed with dementia in 2015. He opened up about his battle with the disease on “Dr. Phil” after he fell on stage and forgot the lyrics to his own song during a concert in Agoura Hills, Calif. earlier that month.
“When friends of yours or family members begin to say to you, ‘Remember, I just told you this two days ago,’ and there’s no memory of it, that’s when I began to be very concerned,” he shared at the time.
Cassidy’s fall fueled speculation that he may have been drunk, considering he was arrested for three DUIs since 2010. A judge ordered the star to rehab in 2014.
He publicly admitted to having an alcohol problem in 2008.
• Australia’s mail-in survey shows a whopping 62% of Aussies support marriage equality which means gay wedding bells will soon be ringing ‘down under.’
• Monday, November 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance. For more info, visit www.glaad.org/tdor
• Legendary gossip columnist and openly bisexual Liz Smith passed away this week at the age of 94
• Philadelphia gay-basher Kathryn Knott settles a civil lawsuit with the two men she helped put in the hospital after a violent gay bashing in Philadelphia
• Supposedly straight Republican Ohio state Rep. Wes Goodman resigns after reports of “inappropriate” consensual behavior in his office with another man
• Plus, I share two new documentaries I think you should see: Rebels On Pointe and Dream Boat.
All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report.
By the way, you shiny happy people, I would really appreciate it if you enjoy my podcast to subscribe and/or leave a review on my iTunes page here.
Those actions go a long way to make The Randy Report more visible to others looking for LGBTQ podcast content.
And, it’s free! Thanks for listening. Hit the play button below.
• Anti-LGBT hate group leader Tony Perkins helped to cover up a sexual assault by now-disgraced GOP Ohio State Rep. Wesley Goodman back in 2015. Goodman allegedly invited an 18-year-old male to crash in his hotel room and when the teenager woke up Goodman had unbuttoned his pants and was pulling his zipper down.
• Miss Coco Peru, famous for her illuminating shopping trips, heads out to Walmart in search of a Wonder Woman crock pot. Watch below.
Former Republican state Sen. Ralph Shortey, who was the Oklahoma state chair for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, has agreed to a guilty plea of child sex trafficking after being caught offering to pay a 17-year-old boy for sexual “stuff” last March.
Shortey was found in a Super 8 Motel room with the teenager on March 9. According to the investigating officers, when they entered the motel room it reeked of marijuana.
Text messages were found on Shortey’s phone between him and the underage teen that showed the boy needed money. Shortey apparently replied “I don’t really have any legitimate things I need help right now. Would you be interested in ‘sexual’ stuff?”
As part of the plea deal, prosecutors will drop three other charges of child pornography that has been filed against him.
With a jury trial date of December 5 looming, the former “family values” lawmaker was running short on time and options. Had he faced all of the charges brought against him in court he could have spent close to the rest of his life in prison.
He’ll be sentenced on November 30. The mandatory minimum sentence for sex trafficking is ten years.
Shortey, who was infamous for introducing strange legislation like banning human fetuses in food products (that happens?) has been married to his high school sweetheart since 2002.
Over and over again the investigation into Russian interference keeps coming back to Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Now, according to the Washington Post, Kushner has failed to include several emails which showed communications concerning WikiLeaks and a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite.”
President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner received and forwarded emails about WikiLeaks and a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite” that he kept from Senate Judiciary Committee investigators, according to panel leaders demanding that he produce the missing records.
Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Kushner’s lawyer Abbe Lowell on Thursday charging that Kushner has failed to disclose several documents, records and transcripts in response to multiple inquiries from committee investigators.
In the letter, Grassley and Feinstein instruct Kushner’s team to turn over “several documents that are known to exist” because other witnesses in their probe already gave them to investigators. They include a series of “September 2016 email communications to Mr. Kushner concerning WikiLeaks,” which the committee leaders say Kushner then forwarded to another campaign official. Earlier this week, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. revealed that he had had direct communication with WikiLeaks over private Twitter messages during the campaign.
Committee leaders said Kushner also withheld from the committee “documents concerning a ‘Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite’ ” that he had forwarded to other campaign officials. And they said Kushner had been made privy to “communications with Sergei Millian” — a Belarusan American businessman who claims close ties to the Trumps and was the source of salacious details in a dossier about the president’s 2013 trip to Moscow — but failed to turn those records over to investigators.
Remember when Team Trump was adamant that “no one in the campaign had ANY contact with ANYONE connected to Russia?”
