Russian lobbyist met Trump team
Ex-Soviet army member at meeting about Clinton
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer aimed at obtaining derogatory information about Hillary Clinton in June 2016 had another, previously undisclosed participant: A Russian-born Washington lobbyist who once served in a Soviet army counterintelligence unit.
Rinat Akhmetshin, who received U.S. citizenship in 2009 and became a lobbyist after emigrating from Russia more than two decades ago, confirmed in an interview Friday that the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, gave documents to Trump Jr., Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort. She said the papers described illicit foreign donations to the Democratic National Committee, Akhmetshin recalled.
Veselnitskaya suggested public disclosure of the information
Akhmetshin’s presence at the meeting and his recollections of it raise new questions about the credibility of Trump Jr.’s and the White House’s accounts of the meeting.
could harm Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and help Trump’s campaign, Akhmetshin said.
When Trump Jr. asked for supporting evidence of illegal donations, Veselnitskaya responded that the campaign would have to investigate the claims itself, Akhmetshin said. At that point, it was clear that the Trump campaign advisers lost interest, and the halfhour meeting came to an awkward close, he said.
“She left some papers behind, or handed them to Trump, as I recall, but they couldn’t wait for the meeting to end,” Akhmetshin said.
Akhmetshin’s presence at the meeting and his recollections of it raise new questions about the credibility of Trump Jr.’s and the White House’s accounts of the meeting.
On Tuesday, Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, said in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox that he had publicly disclosed everything about the June 9 meeting. At the time, he only mentioned the presence of Veselnitskaya.
“I wanted to get it all out there,” he said.
“As far as this incident is concerned, this is all of it?” Hannity asked.
“This is everything. This is everything,” Trump Jr. replied.
In fact, at least seven people are now known to have been present for the meeting: Trump Jr., Kushner, Manafort, Trump Jr.’s friend Rob Goldstone, Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin and a New York-based translator.
Akhmetshin insists he has no current ties to the Russian government. Some U.S. officials dispute that. In March, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote to the Justice Department saying that Akhmetshin should be required to register as a foreign agent because of lobbying activity that the senator suggested was tied to the Russian government. Akhmetshin denies that is the case.
He potentially could provide investigators evidence on whether the Russian government was involved in the overture to the Trump campaign or whether Veselnitskaya was operating on her own, or on behalf of wealthy Russian clients hurt by U.S. sanctions.
In the interview, Akhmetshin said he served in the Soviet Army from 1986 to 1988 as a member of a unit that conducted counterintelligence, but insisted that he has no relationship with the Russian government.
“I am not an intelligence operative,” he said. “I have never accepted a single cent from the Russian government.”
Veselnitskaya, who has close ties to the Kremlin, was operating independently in reaching out to the campaign, he said, adding that the papers she presented to Trump aides “came from her own files,” not the Russian government.
That account is at odds with what Trump Jr. was told by his friend, Goldstone, a music promoter with business dealings in Russia who had arranged the meeting.
Goldstone had described Veselnitskaya as a “Russian government attorney who had “official documents and information” that would “incriminate” Hillary Clinton “and be very useful to your father,” according to emails Trump Jr. released Tuesday.
“If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer,” Trump Jr. had responded.
According to Akhmetshin, Veselnitskaya called him “in a panic” several hours before going to Trump Tower, saying she had an appointment to see Trump’s son.
He and Veselnitskaya had worked together extensively in efforts to overturn a U.S. sanctions law known as the Magnitsky Act, which targeted Russians allegedly involved in money laundering, so he agreed to accompany her.
When Veselnitskaya brought up the Magnitsky law, Akhmetshin told the Trump aides that calling for overturning it could help improve U.S.-Russian relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin retaliated against the Magnitsky law by ending adoptions of Russian children by Americans. Akhmetshin was paid $10,000 to lobby for the Human Rights Accountability Global Foundation, a nonprofit created in 2016 with the stated purpose of restoring Russian-American adoptions.
Denis Katsyv, the son of a senior Russian government official, who has used Veselnitskaya as an attorney, helped bankroll that effort, lobbying filings show.
The web of connections in the case has attracted the interest of both Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
In May, just before a trial, the Justice Department settled a money laundering case in which Veselnitskaya and Katsyv were involved. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions asking whether the White House was involved in the decision to settle the $230 millon case for less than $6 million. The Democrats questioned whether the fine was adequate.