New documents given to CNN are supposed to show that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was focused on having a conversation with Donald Trump Jr and campaign associates about sanctions, not Hillary Clinton.
CNN received emails and talking points from lawyer Scott Balber, who is representing billionaire real estate developer Aras Agalarov and his pop star son Emin, who had helped plan the controversial June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower.
Balber’s emails show Veselnitskaya asking music publicist Rob Goldstone if she could bring lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin to the meeting, because he had been working on repealing the Magnitsky Act and knew ‘the positions held by members of the Foreign Relations Committee that will be very important to our discussion.’
Donald Trump Jr had originally said the meeting was about ‘adoptions,’ as Russia banned American adoptions as retaliation for passing the Magnitsky Act.
New emails given to CNN by a lawyer for the Russian billionaire behind the Trump Tower meeting try to prove that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya (left) was meeting with Donald Trump Jr (right) to talk sanctions – not give the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton
The lawyer, Scott Balber, suggests music publicist Rob Goldstone (pictured) is at fault for hyping up the Trump Tower meeting and saying to Donald Trump Jr that the Russians would provide dirt on Hillary Clinton. There are also emails that express that
She also notes that Akhmetshin and her translator Anatoli Samochornov had signed an ‘NDA,’ likely a non-disclosure agreement, which experts told CNN seemed odd.
Goldstone gave her the green light saying, ‘I would suggest you bring whoever you need in order to make this meeting successful,’ saying the meeting would begin at 4 p.m., instead of the 3 p.m. start time in his original email.
Balber had traveled to Moscow to receive the documents from Veselnitskaya and argued to CNN that they prove that she was focused on repealing the Magnitsky Act, not providing the campaign with dirt on President Trump’s political rival, Clinton.
He explained to the network it was like a game of telephone and then suggested Goldstone, a music publicist who worked with now-President Trump on the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, was at fault.
Balber said it was Goldstone who inserted the dirt-on-Clinton angle into getting the meeting, telling CNN he ‘probably exaggerated and maybe willfully contorted the facts for the purpose of making the meeting interesting to the Trump people.’
‘The documents and what she told me are consistent with my client’s understanding of the purpose of the meeting which was from the beginning and at all times thereafter about her efforts to launch a legislative review of the Magnitsky Act,’ Balber continued.
The emails that were previously made public between Donald Trump Jr and Goldstone talked up providing the Trump campaign with Clinton dirt.
‘The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,’ Goldstone’s email read.
Donald Trump Jr. famously answered, ‘I love it.’
Goldstone has admitted to exaggerating when selling the meeting to the eldest Trump son, though didn’t provide a new comment for CNN’s story.
Balber’s claims show how some parties associated with the controversial Trump Tower meeting plan to characterize it, so that it doesn’t seem like collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
Several committees in Congress along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller are looking into whether there was collusion between the two entities.
Mueller’s team has been especially interested in a statement that was drafted about the meeting, which was inaccurate, wishing to interview White House staffers that were on board Air Force One when it was being written.