Intelligence ties were lobbyist’s selling point
Alobbyist who was once a Soviet counter-intelligence officer participated last year in a meeting with senior aides to US President Donald Trump, including his eldest son, and a Russian lawyer, NBC News has reported, adding to allegations of possible connections between Moscow and last November’s presidential election.
NBC, which did not identify the Russian-American lobbyist, said some US officials suspected him of still having ties to Russian intelligence, something he denied to the network.
The Associated Press said the lobbyist, who it identified as Rinat Akhmetshin, confirmed that he had attended the June 2016 meeting in New York’s Trump Tower. A source familiar with the participants at the meeting confirmed to Reuters that Akhmetshin was in the room.
The meeting appears to be the most tangible evidence of a connection between Trump’s election campaign and Russia, a subject that has prompted investigations by congressional committees and a federal special counsel.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former campaign adviser Paul Manafort were also at the meeting, which the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, agreed to attend because he believed he could get damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Trump Jr did not mention Akhmetshin’s presence when he released a series of emails about the meeting earlier this week. Rinat Akhmetshin was not one to hide his connections to Russian intelligence.
During his years working in the shadowy Washington, DC world of corporate intelligence, his connections to former Russian agents were pitched as a valuable asset to private clients. Akhmetshin – who courted journalists and politicians alike – was known for speaking as candidly about his years of military service in Afghanistan as his objectives on Capitol Hill.
Akhmetshin began his career working for central Asian oligarchs who needed a helping hand in Washington. But in recent years, his lobbying work seemed to take on a singular focus: reversing the 2012 Rinat Akhmetshin has been accused in federal and state courts in the US of engaging in hacking conspiracies, although the allegations were later withdrawn.
Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said yesterday the report about Akhmetshin ‘‘if accurate, adds Magnitsky Act, a law passed by Barack Obama that infuriated Russian President Vladimir Putin and was designed to punish Russia for the 2009 prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
One lawyer who knows Akhmetshin and hired him in the past said that far from being seen as pro-Putin, the Russian-American lobbyist assiduously avoided politics. In his business dealings with prospective clients, however, he used his connections to Russian intelligence as a selling point.
‘‘He has quite a diverse group of clients,’’ the person said.
‘‘He is a former GRU person for sure, but he once said there is no such thing as former.’’
That fact that Akhmetshin, who told Politico last year that he once served as a Soviet counterintelligence officer, is an American citizen also suggests that he would have at least been known to United States officials.
In May, he downplayed the Russia-Trump scandal, telling a reporter that he did not believe the Kremlin was involved in colluding with the Trump election campaign, and that allegations of frequent contacts between Russian agents and Trump campaign officials had probably been fabricated.
At the same time, he acknowledged that he was facing scrutiny on Capitol Hill for his efforts to reverse the Magnitsky Act. another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting’’.
Akhmetshin was not available for comment, and there was no answer at the door of his house in Washington.
The White House had no immediate comment about the NBC report. Kushner’s spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Manafort’s spokesman Jason Maloni said Manafort had no comment to make.
A former Trump campaign adviser, Michael Caputo, said after testifying to the House Intelligence Committee in a closed session yesterday that he had no contact with Russians and had never heard of anyone in the Trump
Akhmetshin is not registered as representing foreign agents or governments, but his client list is long. He was accused in a US lawsuit of engaging in a campaign to encourage US officials to reverse the asylum status of a former deputy of the Russian Duma.
Last year, Akhmetshin was seen walking around Congress by a congressional staffer, who reportedly warned colleagues that he was alarmed because Akhmetshin was known for specialising in ‘‘active measures campaigns’’. Confronted with the allegation, Akhmetshin seemed to shrug it off, telling Politico: ‘‘Just because I was born in Russia doesn’t mean I am an agent of the Kremlin.’’ campaign ‘‘talking with Russians’’.
Accusations by US intelligence agencies that Moscow meddled in the election and colluded with the Trump campaign have dominated the Republican president’s first months in office.
Russia denies the allegations, and Trump says there was no collusion.
The agencies said earlier this year that Russia sought to help Trump win the election by hacking private emails from Democratic Party officials and disseminating false information online.
To help the White House deal with Russia-related investigations, Trump has hired veteran Washington lawyer Ty Cobb. Cobb’s role is separate from Trump’s outside legal team, led by New York lawyer Marc Kasowitz.
Akhmetshin has been accused in federal and state courts in the US of engaging in hacking conspiracies, although the allegations were later withdrawn, according to court records.
In 2015, lawyers for Russian mining company International Mineral Resources claimed in the US District Court of the District of Columbia that Akhmetshin helped to organise the hacking, theft and dissemination of private documents. That case was dropped. The same company filed a lawsuit against Akhmetshin in the New York Supreme Court, but withdrew it last year.