Trump spooked
Former Russian ‘spy’ also attended meeting with Jr.
A suspected ex-spy who a top GOP senator said still has ties to Russian intelligence sat in on the meeting where a Russian lawyer met with Donald Trump Jr. to dish dirt about Hillary Clinton, it was revealed Friday.
Rinat Akhmetshin, a former counterintelligence officer who works as a lobbyist, said Kremlinconnected lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who wanted the meeting with Trump Jr., brought along documents supporting her claims that illicit cash had been funneled to the Democratic National Committee.
During the meeting, Akhmetshin said, Veselnitskaya provided Trump Jr. with details of what she believed were illicit contributions to the DNC and suggested that going public with the dirt could hurt Clinton’s campaign.
“This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money,” Akhmetshin, in an interview with The Associated Press, recalled her saying.
Akhmetshin said the lawyer, who invited him to attend, had a plastic folder with documents that detailed her claims.
He said that he did not know whether they were provided by the Kremlin, but that he believes she left the materials with Trump Jr. or Jared Kushner or Paul Manafort, who were also there.
Trump Jr. quickly lost interest after Veselnitskaya told him Team Trump would need to do more research, Akhmetshin said.
“They couldn’t wait for the meeting to end,” he recalled.
Trump Jr. confirmed that Veselnitskaya attended the meeting.
Akhmetshin also said he recognized both Kushner, who is President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, and then-campaign chairman Manafort.
In an April letter to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said the spook-turned-DC lobbyist was “alleged to have conducted political disinformation campaigns” and charged that Akhmetshin was still connected to the Kremlin.
Grassley also told Kelly that Akhmetshin “has ties to Russian intelligence.”
Radio Free Europe described Akhmetshin as a “Russian gun for hire who works in the shadows of Washington’s lobbying world,” Grassley added.
Another lawmaker, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (D-Calif.), told CNN earlier this year that Akhmetshin had “international connections to different groups in Russia.”
Asked whether he thought Akhmetshin was connected to the Russian security services, Rohrabacher said, “I would certainly not rule that out.”
Akhmetshin, who has dual Russian and American citizenship and lives in Washington, was on Congress’ radar at the time because of a probe into his lobbying efforts unrelated to Trump Jr.
A British financier who will testify before a Senate committee next week charged that Akhmetshin was still working for Russian intelligence.
Hedge-fund manager Bill Browder, who blew the whistle on a scam in which Kremlin-connected Russian oligarchs were il- legally enriching themselves, said once a spy always a spy.
“In the world of Russian intelligence, there is no such thing as a ‘former intelligence officer,’ ” he told Business Insider on Friday.
“So in my opinion, you had a member of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s secret police directly meeting with the son of the future next president of the United States asking to change US sanctions policy crucial to Putin.”
Browder filed a complaint with the Justice Department last year accusing Akhmetshin of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act by failing to disclose his lobbying work, which triggered Grassley’s letter to Kelly seeking information about him.
The revelation of Akhmetshin’s presence at the Trump Jr. meeting heightened questions about whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin during the election, which is the focus of federal and congressional probes.
Spokesmen for Kushner and Manfort declined to comment, as did Trump Jr.’s lawyer.
Akhmetshin has been identified in media reports as a former officer in Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU. He denied that, saying he served in the Soviet Army from 1986 to 1988 after he was drafted but was not trained in spy tradecraft.