Georgian-American businessman Giorgi Rtskhiladze says a federal appeals court is ready to grant him the relief he has been seeking for years since the Mueller report identified him in the infamous “golden showers” footnote about Donald Trump.
Rtskhiladze sued former special counsel Robert Mueller and the Justice Department after he was quoted informing former Trump fixer Michael Cohen that he had “stopped the flow of tapes from Russia.”
Its recording proved explosive in light of the Steele dossier's rumors about Trump's alleged lascivious behavior at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow — rumors that were never substantiated. Rtskhiladze continues to claim he was defamed by the footnote, which changed his lyrics to Cohen ahead of the 2016 campaign.
“The Mueller report published a false version of what I told them during my grand jury testimony,” Rtskhiladze told DailyMail.com from Kazakhstan after his lawyer appeared before a DC Court of Appeals panel.
Georgian-American businessman Giorgi Rtskhiladze is suing Robert Mueller and the Justice Department over a footnote mentioning his texts with former Trump fixer Michael Cohen
A lower court judge had ruled that the businessman born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia – he was wrongly identified as Russian in the report – did not have standing to file a lawsuit.
His lawyer Jerome Madden told a three-judge panel on Friday that this was the wrong decision. “This is a case where the Justice Department itself, in a very media-fueled frenzy, released part of the transcript (of his client's grand jury interview with prosecutors) into the public forum. And when it did, it misquoted the transcript and left out material portions,” he said in court.
The attorney continued his criticism of footnote 112. “This footnote destroyed my client's livelihood. All he wants is to be able to go to the public forum and say, look, this is what I actually said. That's all.
“We didn't know anything about tapes,” said Rtskhiladze, who is in Kazakhstan for a meeting of film producers and Georgia's culture minister in a bid to bring more Hollywood film shoots to Georgia.
Recalling how the episode started, he said he was at his home in Connecticut when he got a call from a friend in Moscow who was calling to pass on some gossip because he knew he was doing business with the Trump Organization.
“I heard someone bragging about some Trump tapes from Russia. And I said to Michael: be careful, there are rumours.'
“Of course I had no idea about the golden shower… No one was talking about a shower,” he said.
Rtskhiladze wants access to the original grand jury transcript. Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the transcripts should be kept secret. His lawyer said we want the opportunity to make it known.
In the passage in question, Rtskhiladze texted Cohen in 2016: “The flow of some tapes from Russia has stopped.”
But the Mueller report left out a word when it laid out the details, saying that Rtskhiladze had said, “The flow of tires from Russia has stopped,” a small but significant difference that his complaint says suggests he was aware of the contents. Rtskhiladze has repeatedly said he believed it was just “bragging.”
He previously told DailyMail.com that the information was recorded to harm Trump and “kill” me as a scapegoat.
U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that Rtskhiladze had failed to prove intentional wrongdoing and that the “obvious statement is merely an editorial error.” Bloomberg Law reported.
Rtskhiladze is not the only one fixating on the Mueller report years after its publication in April 2019.
The messages, obtained by DailyMail.com, show that Rtskhiladze told Cohen: 'The flow of some tapes has stopped'
When Rtskhiladze said it was 'no problem' but said there are 'a lot of stupid people', Cohen replied: 'You have no idea'
The Mueller report referred to Trump's “unverified claim that the Russians had compromising ties” while he was in Russia for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant.
Special counsel Robert Mueller added a footnote to the texts, saying it may relate to part of the golden showers dossier
The Mueller report noted Steele Dossier's “unverified allegation that the Russians had compromising ties of the president regarding conduct while he was a private citizen during a 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant.” It was a reference to unsubstantiated allegations regarding the Carlton Hotel, formerly the Ritz-Carlton Moscow
Trump himself continues to bring it up, along with the golden showers episode, as he rails against the “witch hunt” as he faces four criminal trials.
He did that again in Fort Dodge Iowa last month.
“It started with Russia, Russia, Russia, remember?” Trump told a crowd.
'He was with four whores. Do you think it was okay to go up that night and tell my wife, “It's not true, honey, I love you very much. It's not true!' Actually, she didn't believe it, because she said, 'He's a germaphobe; He doesn't like that, you know?' He doesn't like golden showers, as they say, but he isn't.'
'I don't like that idea. No, I thought that would be a big problem. I was going to have a rough night. But she was very good at that,” he said of former first lady Melania Trump.
Even if the three-judge panel rules against him, Rtskhiladze could seek an en banc review from the entire circuit.
“We're going all the way to where we need to go. “If I have to go to the Supreme Court… and go on a hunger strike,” he said he would do so to clear his name.
“This should never happen,” he said.
