Ex-Soviet spy attended meeting with Trump Jr.
NEW YORK• Donald Trump Jr.’s controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer promising incriminating information on Hillary Clinton was also attended by an ex-Soviet spy, it emerged Friday.
Rimat Akhmetshin, described as a charming, stylish, English-speaking lobbyist, has admitted working as a Soviet counter intelligence operative — but insists he is no longer a spy.
“Just because I was born in Russia doesn’t mean I am an agent of the Kremlin,” he told Politico, a U.S. journalism site, in November.
But Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, was so concerned about his activities last April that he wrote to John Kelly, the Homeland Security secretary, to ask whether Akhmetshin had registered as a “foreign agent,” working on behalf of a foreign power. It remains unclear whether he has.
The presence of Akhmetshin in the June 2016 meeting should have certainly rung alarm bells for those present — the president’s eldest son; his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his campaign manager, Paul Manafort, himself a veteran lobbyist who has worked with pro-Putin groups.
Alan Futerfas, Trump Jr.’s lawyer said that, “for the purpose of security or otherwise, the names were reviewed” prior to the meeting — but said Trump Jr. knew nothing about the man’s background at the time.
“He is a U.S. citizen. He told me specifically he was not working for the Russian government, and in fact laughed when I asked him that question,” said Futerfas.
Soliciting campaign support from a foreign national is illegal.
“If you had a contact with Russia, tell the special counsel about it. Don’t wait until The New York Times figures it out,” said Trey Gowdy, a Congressman for South Carolina who chairs the House oversight committee.
On Tuesday after he tweeted the email trail leading up to the meeting, Trump Jr. was asked on Fox News: “As far as you know, as far as this incident is concerned, this is all of it?” He replied: “This is everything. This is everything.”
Three days later, Akhmetshin’s involvement was revealed.
The former spy moved to the U.S. in 1999 to work as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., representing Russian interests, and 10 years later became a U.S. citizen.
In court papers filed with New York Supreme Court in November 2015, Akhmetshin was described as “a former Soviet military counter-intelligence officer” by lawyers for International Mineral Resources, a Russian mining company, which alleged that it had been hacked. The allegations were later withdrawn without explanation.
A year later he was working as a lobbyist registered with the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation, which was founded in February 2016 and assisted by Natalia Veselnitskaya, the lawyer met by Trump Jr.
The foundation describes itself as being dedicated to helping “restart American adoption of Russian children.” In practice, this means overturning the Magnitsky Act — a series of sanctions placed on Russian officials.
Akhmetshin was paid US$10,000 by Veselnitskaya’s group, according to his registered-lobbyist disclosure form. In April 2016, he met Dana Rohrabacher, a California Congressman known to support Vladimir Putin, in Berlin, and approached him in connection with the Magnitsky Act.