LOBBYIST DENIES SPY PAST
Ex-Soviet counterintelligence officer was present at meeting between Russian lawyer and Trump Jr, says US media
WASHINGTON
ALOBBYIST, who attended a meeting at which Donald Trump Jr expected to receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton, has denied working for Russian intelligence.
It emerged on Friday that Rinat Akhmetshin, a lobbyist with dual Russian and American citizenship, had accompanied Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya to the meeting in June last year.
US media described him as a former Soviet counterintelligence officer who was suspected, by some US officials, of having ongoing ties with Russian intelligence. But, Akhmetshin rejected that allegation as “maliciously false”. He claimed that he had “never worked for any intelligence service”.
The meeting has become the focus of allegations that the Trump election campaign collaborated last year with Moscow to turn voters away from Clinton.
Those allegations are being investigated by the Justice Department under former Federal Bureau of Investigation chief Robert Mueller.
Emails showed that the meeting was pitched to President Donald Trump’s eldest son as a chance to obtain dirt on Clinton, allegedly supplied by Moscow.
“If it’s what you say, I love it,” Trump Jr said about the offer in an email to entertainment promoter Rob Goldstone, the person arranging the meeting.
The encounter was also attended by Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and son-in-law Jared Kushner, underscoring how important the campaign apparently thought it could be.
Emails showing Trump Jr’s willingness to meet the lawyer are viewed by some as a possible “smoking gun” in the investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia.
According to The Washington Post, Akhmetshin had said that Veselnitskaya claimed to have information on a US hedge fund with links to Clinton’s Democratic Party.
But, Trump Jr said Veselnitskaya did not produce damaging information on Clinton and, instead, focused the discussion on the US “Magnitsky” sanctions against a Russian firm that she represented. AFP