Ivanka in Russian chitchat
IVANKA TRUMP shared a random Trump Tower runin with a Kremlin-linked lawyer leaving a June 2016 sitdown with her brother Donald Jr. and two other top campaign advisors.
The First Daughter (photo) chatted amiably with attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin outside the elevators in the Fifth Ave. skyscraper, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Though nothing more substantial than pleasantries were swapped, special counsel Robert Mueller is pursuing details on all meetings between the Trump family and the Russians, according to the newspaper.
Ivanka did not attend the 30-minute sitdown between the Russians and three top Trump campaign advisors — his namesake son, his sonin-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Mueller has already indicted Manafort for fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in the midst of his probe into possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign.
The Los Angeles paper also reported that at least one of the participants in the meeting between the Russians and the Trump trio was recalled for additional questioning by Mueller.
Defense attorneys involved in the Mueller investigation told the Los Angeles Times that the callback of the witness could signal a change in the probe’s direction.
Mueller could now be looking at possible obstruction of justice by Trump and his administration rather than collusion with the Russians during the 2016 campaign.
The Midtown sitdown returned to the headlines last week via former White House insider Steve Bannon, who ripped Donald Jr., Kushner and Manafort as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic” in the bombshell book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”