CNN and NBC News are reporting that Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met in Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr. and others in June 2016 promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, has been charged with obstruction of justice. The charge is not connected to the meeting, but a money-laundering case. She allegedly concealed from the court information that she had participated in drafting what was supposed to be independent investigative findings but was actually in secret cooperation with a senior Russian prosecutor.
The significance here are her ties to the Russian government, which were closer than she made known previously. NBC, however, had reported on her close ties last year.
You’ll find the indictment papers in the second link.
That’s the thing here. She’s closer to the Russian government than she’d let on. If that’s the case, what was she doing at the Trump tower meeting? I think we can guess, but this does open that question up.
Adoptions means Magnitsky act. This case is related to the Magnitsky act. The Magnitsky act is sanctions imposed on the Russians. This case is about money laundering… through luxury apartments in New York.
What we she doing at the Trump Tower meeting? You’re joking…
Trump’s defenders will say this indictment has nothing to do with Trump. What it does do, however, is refute Trump’s defenders’ claim that Veselnitskaya was not an agent of the Kremlin oligarchs.
The accusation that she was involved with Russians laundering money through buying real estate… might be interesting if one were a suspicious type.
It is not ignoring it. It is being informed on it, and understanding that it is irrelevant to the discussion at hand. It is a weak deflection, nothing more. And yes, it is powerful to be informed enough to understand this reality.
