Lawyer: Russian developer’s staffer also at Trump Tower meet
WASHINGTON » A representative of the Russian developer who partnered with President Donald Trump to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow was the eighth person at a Trump Tower meeting arranged by Donald Trump Jr. during the campaign, a lawyer for the developer said Tuesday.
Ike Kaveladze attended to help translate at the meeting with Trump Jr., Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and others, attorney Scott Balber told The Washington Post and CNN.
Balber told the media outlets that Kaveladze works for developers Emin and Aras Agalarov and was there to represent them. The father and son, who worked with Trump on the pageant in 2013, were named in the emails that promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton.
In an online profile, Kaveladze lists himself as a vice president of Russiabased Crocus Group, Aras Agalarov’s firm, and says in a separate LinkedIn profile that he handled tax preparation for the company.
Balber didn’t return messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. He told the other media outlets that officials from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office were in touch with him about Kaveladze and that he and Kaveladze were cooperating. Mueller is investigating possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
A person familiar with the meeting speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation confirmed to The Associated Press that Kaveladze attended.
Online profiles of Kaveladze, who also goes by the name Irakly Kaveladze, say he holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of New Haven in Connecticut. His most recent U.S. address appears to be in Huntington Beach, California, although several websites he maintains say he is based in Moscow. He didn’t respond to multiple attempts to reach him through his online sites.
Trump’s eldest son arranged the June 2016 meeting after he was promised that a Russian government lawyer would provide negative information about Trump’s Democratic rival during the campaign. In emails, Trump Jr. expressed enthusiastic support at the prospect of receiving such material.
Balber said Kaveladze wasn’t needed as a translator at the meeting because Veselnitskaya brought one with her.
The meeting also was attended by Trump son-inlaw Jared Kushner, thencampaign chairman Paul Manafort, music publicist Rob Goldstone and Rinat Akhmetshin, a prominent Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer.
Trump Jr. scheduled the gathering after Goldstone, a British publicist for Emin Agalarov, said Veselnitskaya might have damaging information on Clinton she could share. Trump Jr. has said the information wasn’t useful.
Vaselnitskaya has denied that she works for the Russian government. She says the meeting focused on U.S.-Russian adoption policies and a sanctions law.
On Tuesday, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, said Mueller had approved Manafort and others to testify before the panel, though it was unclear if Manafort would agree to talk.
A person familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing investigations, said Manafort hasn’t committed to appearing next week and hasn’t decided which committees he’ll meet with.
Kaveladze was named a vice president of the Crocus Group in 2004. He lists among his achievements the development of Russia’s Far Eastern Federal University, a cluster of more than 70 college buildings near Vladivostok that Agalarov built, according to websites that contain profiles of him.