Lawyer gives details of meeting with Trump Jr.
Russian attorney: He hinted at review of law against Kremlin
A Russian lawyer who met with President Donald Trump’s oldest son last year says he indicated that a law targeting Russia could be re-examined if his father won the election and asked her for written evidence that illegal proceeds went to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, said in a 2 1⁄2-hour interview in Moscow that she would tell these and other things to the Senate Judiciary Committee on condition that her answers be made public, something it hasn’t agreed to. She has received scores of questions from the committee, which is investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Veselnitskaya said she’s also ready, if asked, to testify to special counsel Robert Mueller.
Her June 9, 2016, encounter with Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son-inlaw, Jared Kushner, and then campaign chairman Paul Manafort in New York plays a key role in allegations that the campaign worked with Russia to defeat Clinton.
Veselnitskaya said she went to the New York meeting to show Trump campaign officials that major Democratic donors had evaded U.S. taxes and to lobby against the Magnitsky Act, which punishes Russian officials for the killing of Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky, who accused the Kremlin of corruption.
“Looking ahead, if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it,” Trump Jr. said of the 2012 law, she recalled. “I understand our side may have messed up, but it’ll take a long time to get to the bottom of it,” he added, according to her.
Veselnitskaya also said Trump Jr. requested financial documents showing that money that allegedly evaded U.S. taxes had gone to Clinton’s campaign. She didn’t have any and described the 20minute meeting as a failure.
A lawyer for Trump Jr., Alan Futerfas, said the president’s son had no comment about the interview, the first time Veselnitskaya has offered details about what was discussed at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
Trump Jr. has said that he had wasted his time seeing the lawyer because she provided no useful information.
The meeting took place after British publicist Rob Goldstone contacted Trump Jr. on behalf of Veselnitskaya to request it, describing her as a Russian government lawyer who had information and documents that would incriminate Clinton.
“This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump,” Goldstone wrote in an email to Trump Jr.
“If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer,” Trump Jr. replied almost immediately.
Veselnitskaya says she told the president’s son she had information that Clinton’s campaign may have received some of the almost $1 billion the wealthy Ziff brothers gained from Russian investments that allegedly evaded U.S. taxes.
She says she was acting in a private capacity and not as a Russian government representative. But there is evidence of an official imprimatur: She brought to the meeting a four-page talking-points memorandum in English that contained very similar information to a document she had provided to the office of Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika in 2015, both of which were obtained by Bloomberg News.