Russian social media exec reached out to Scavino, Trump Jr. during campaign: report

An executive at a Russian social media company reached out to Donald Trump Jr. and another official in President Trump’s campaign during the 2016 campaign, according to a new report.

The Washington Post reports Konstantin Sidorkov, who works at Russia’s Vkontakte, or VK, social network, emailed Trump Jr. and Trump social media director Dan Scavino in January and November 2016, telling the two men that Trump should create a profile on the Russian equivalent to Facebook.

“It will be the top news in Russia,” Sidorkov wrote in a November 2016 email to the two men, according to the report.

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The original outreach from VK was reportedly set up by British music publicist Rob Goldstone, who also played a part in setting up a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer promising damaging information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

According to the Post, Goldstone reached out to Trump Jr. in January 2016 about Trump creating a profile on the Russian social media network.

An attorney for Trump Jr. told the newspaper that he received the email from Goldstone and forwarded it to Scavino.

Scavino replied to Goldstone’s email, telling the publicist to “send me whatever you have.”

“Thank you so much for looking out for Mr. Trump and his presidential campaign,” Scavino wrote, according to the Post.

Trump Jr.’s attorney told the Post that forwarding the email to Scavino was the last VK discussion he recalled.

“He did nothing more with the information and had no recollection of or involvement in any further discussion about the matter,” Alan Futerfas said.

Goldstone later emailed Scavino that his client, Emin Agalarov, wanted to create a promotional page on VK for Trump titled “Vote Trump 2016.”

Sidorkov was set to oversee the page and was copied on the message, according to the Post.

“At the time, Paul had said he would welcome it, and so I had the VK folks mock up a basic sample page, which I am resending for your approval now,” Goldstone wrote, according to the Post. “It would merely require Mr. Trump to drop in a short message to Russian-American voters or a generic message, depending on your choice, and the page can be up and running very quickly.”

A U.S. representative for Agalarov said the page “did not come up” at the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower.

CNN also reported on the existence of some of the emails Thursday showing Goldstone followed up with Scavino after the meeting.

Trump Jr. on Wednesday declined to tell the House Intelligence Committee details about his conversation with President Trump regarding the meeting, citing client privilege.