On June 9, 2016, Donald Trump Jr. met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York City to discuss damning information she claimed she had on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Nothing came of the meeting as Veselnitskaya lied and was really there to push for the repeal of the Magnitsky Act, a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Obama in December 2012, intending to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009.
At least three of the five people at the meeting with Donald Trump Jr. were Fusion GPS officials.
The eight people who attended the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016:
— Donald Trump Jr.
— Jared Kushner (left early)
— Paul Manafort
— Natalia Veselnitskaya (Fusion GPS)
— Anatoli Samochornov (translator and Fusion GPS)
— Rinat Akhmetshin (lobbyist – Fusion GPS)
— Rob Goldstone
— Rep. of the Agalarov Family
Natalia Veselnitskaya met with Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS, before and after she met with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in June.
On Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee released more than 1,800 pages of transcripts with Donald Trump, Jr.
US senators forced Trump Jr. to testify in front of Congress about the 20 meeting.
Zero Hedge reported:
the Senate Judiciary Committee has released more than 1,800 pages of interview transcripts with Donald Trump Jr. and others who attended a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that has become a key focus of the Mueller probe. However, instead of damning the Trumps, the transcripts offer more proof that Don Jr.’s account of the meeting – that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya used the opportunity to lobby against the Magnitsky Act, prompting Trump, who had been promised dirt on Hillary Clinton, to end the meeting after 20 minutes – is, in fact, what happened.
Indeed, an excerpt published by the Washington Post notes that the attendees who answered the committee’s request to testify largely corroborated Trump’s story.
The excerpted testimony shows that attendees at the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting largely agreed with Trump Jr.’s long-standing contention that the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, did not transmit dirt about Clinton.She has denied she was acting on behalf of the Russian government.
According to the Associated Press, Trump Jr. appeared to evade questions about discussions he’d had with the president – including whether the two men ever discussed the Russia probe. he also said he didn’t think it was wrong to seek “dirt” on his father’s rival, Hillary Clinton, even if the information came from Russian sources.
The Senate testimony also reaffirmed that Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had never met in person, despite what certain liberal conspiracy theorists would have you believe, before Trump became president.
Putin had apparently agreed to attend a rehearsal for Trump’s Miss Universe pageant when it was held in Moscow in 2013, but the Russian leader canceled at the last minute.
The testimony also includes new details about Trump’s long interest in building business ties to Russia and a relationship with President VladiÂmir Putin.
An Agalarov employee testified to the committee that the Russian mogul tried to get Trump a meeting with Putin when the Miss Universe pageant, which Trump owned, was held in Moscow in 2013.
The employee told the committee that Agalarov “secretly requested” the meeting through a Russian government official.
Putin agreed to attend a pageant rehearsal, but canceled at the last minute. Though Trump periodically claimed during the campaign that he knew Putin, there is no evidence the two men met until after Trump took office.
Trump Jr. told the Committee that he was disappointed when Veselnitskaya failed to come through with the dirt she had promised.
The president’s son acknowledged he too was disappointed that the Russian lawyer did not provide more information that could be used in the campaign: “All else being equal, I wouldn’t have wanted to waste 20 minutes hearing about something that I wasn’t supposed to be meeting about,” he told the committee.
Though panel Republicans conferred with their Democratic counterparts on point-by-point issues during the preparation of the transcripts, their release is expected to touch off a new wave of partisan bickering.
The transcripts mark the first time Donald Trump Jr.’s account was released to the public.
The documents show the meeting at Trump tower was a big nothing-burger.
