Russian lawyer questions why Mueller hasn’t contacted her
ARUSSIAN lawyer who discussed sanctions with Donald Trump Jr in New York during his father’s 2016 campaign for the US presidency said Yesterday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has not contacted her yet.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Natalia Veselnitskaya also detailed her recent meeting in Berlin with investigators from the US Senate Intelligence Committee. Like Mueller, the committee is investigating allegations of Russian interference in the US presidential election.
Veselnitskaya met in June 2016 with thencandidate Donald Trump’s son, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his campaign chairman at the time, Paul Manafort, after Trump Jr was told the Russian lawyer had potentially incriminating information about Hillary Clinton.
Mueller, a former FBI director, is leading a federal probe of possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. He has filed charges against multiple former Trump campaign aides.
Veselnitskaya alleged in her interview with the AP in downtown Moscow that if Mueller’s team never questions her, it would mean that it “is not working to discover the truth”.
Veselnitskaya is a well-connected Moscow lawyer who has worked with a company called Prevezon Holdings Ltd. The company’s owner is the son of a former Russian government official and a fierce advocate for rolling back US sanctions on Russia.
At the time of her 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, she was defending Prevezon against charges it had engaged in money laundering from a $230 million Russian tax fraud scheme.
Trump Jr and others in attendance have downplayed the meeting, saying nothing came of it. Trump has denied that he or his campaign coordinated with any Russian attempts to interfere in the election.