koromelena/iStock(NEW YORK) — The Russian lawyer that met with President Donald Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign chairman in June, 2016 at Trump Tower has been charged by federal prosecutors in New York in a separate case that highlights the attorney’s apparent ties to the Kremlin.
Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, 43, is charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly submitting a “intentionally misleading declaration” that sought to exonerate her client, a wealthy Russian businessman, in a civil forfeiture case in Manhattan.
The document she allegedly submitted in court included the findings of a supposedly independent Russian government investigation – when in fact, according to prosecutors, Veselnitskaya “concealed from the Court that she, as a member of the defense team … had participated in drafting those supposed exculpatory investigative findings in secret cooperation with a senior Russian prosecutor.”
The case is unrelated to the now-infamous 2016 meeting, in which Donald Trump Jr., his brother-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Trump Jr. initially suggested that the meeting was primarily about international adoption issues, when in fact subsequent emails revealed that the younger Trump met with the Russian attorney in the hopes of receiving information that he thought would be helpful to his father’s presidential campaign.
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