Collusion: Top Russian intel agent was at meeting with Trump Jr., Russian lawyer
UPDATE, 2:20PM EDT: Martin Longman has a terrific article that connects more dots with respect to the Russians with whom Donald Trump Jr. met.
UPDATE, 9:55AM EDT: AP names agent – Rinat Akhmentshin. He’s a real piece of work, and this article from 2016 explains why, as does this info from our friends over at Raw Story:
The Daily Beast reports that a case filed with New York Supreme Court in 2015 alleges that Akhmetshin successfully orchestrated the hacking of two computer systems and stole documents from International Mineral Resources (IMR), a Russian mining company.
“The U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. was told in July 2015 that Akhmetshin had arranged the hacking of a mining company’s private records — stealing internal documents and then disseminating them,” the Daily Beast reports. “The corporate espionage case was brought by IMR, who alleged that Akhmetshin was hired by Russian oligarch Andrey Melinchenko, an industrialist worth around $12 billion.”
Akhmetshin denied that he orchestrated any hacking of the company, but acknowledged that he “found” a hard drive that just happened to contain sensitive IMR documents.
Akhmetshin, a registered congressional lobbyist, has in the past also done work on behalf of Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was also present at the June 9 meeting at Trump Tower.
Donald Trump Jr., who earlier this week insisted that he had disclosed all relevant information about the June 9 meeting, had previously not disclosed that Akhmetshin was present.
UPDATE, 8:30AMEDT: Alan Futerfas, Donald Trump Jr’s lawyer, just informed NBC News that a sixth individual was at the meeting. And the speculation begins.
This makes things much more complicated not only for “Numbskull Junior” but the entire Trump cadre. NBC’s Ken Dilanian, Natasha Lebedova, and Hallie Jackson report that
The Russian lawyer who met with the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist — a former Soviet counter intelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News has learned.
NBC News is not naming the lobbyist, who denies any current ties to Russian spy agencies. He accompanied the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort.
The Russian-born American lobbyist served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.
Veselnitskaya acknowledged to NBC News that she was accompanied by at least one other man, though she declined to identify him.
The presence at the meeting of a Russian-American with suspected intelligence ties is likely to be of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate panels investigating the Russian election interference campaign.
Likely? More like “set off a five-alarm poopstorm in the special counsel’s office.” This big get from NBC completely destroys the White House’s narrative about the meeting, but we doubt that they have the common sense to shut their yaps about it, at least for the time being.
Meanwhile, CNN has their own get from the lawyer for a Russian oligarch:
In a late-night interview with CNN’s Jim Sciutto and Pamela Brown, Scott Balber — the attorney for Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov and his son Emin — confirmed the Agalarovs spoke President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr during the campaign.
“I wanted to bottom line ask did your client speak to Donald Trump Jr. before or after the meeting with the Russian lawyer?” Brown asked the attorney about Natalia Veselnitskaya who met with the Trump campaign in June 2016.
“At some point, before the meeting, yes, but likely months before,” he replied. “He has no recollection of any conversation by telephone or otherwise in this time frame with Donald Trump Jr. either. He doesn’t believe it happened.”
The cable outlet also obtained footage of Trump Sr. palling around with some of the Russians with whom his son met:
