July 22, 2017
THE TIES THAT BIND:
Trump Jr. meeting relevant to Russia probe: US special counsel Mueller (Deutsche-Welle, 7/22/17)
US special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday sent a document preservation request to the White House, saying that a meeting Donald Trump Jr. had with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was relevant to an investigation into possible links between his father's campaign team and Russia. [...]Russian court documents seen by the Reuters and AP news agencies show that Veselnitskaya successfully represented Russia's FSB security service over a property ownership dispute in Moscow between 2005 and 2013. [...]If proven, Veselnitskaya's contacts with the FSB - the successor to the Soviet-era KGB - could add to concerns the Trump 2016 campaign team may have colluded with the Kremlin in its apparent bid to help tip last year's US presidential election in Trump's favor.A US-based employee of a Russian real estate company - Ike Kaveladze - was named last week as the eighth participant in the June 2016 meeting. He reportedly attended as a representative of Aras and Emin Agalarov, Russian developers who hosted the Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013.In another development on Friday, the Washington Post reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions did discuss campaign-related and policy matters with Russia's ambassador in Washington. If confirmed, this would be contrary to his prior testimony.
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 22, 2017 5:22 AM