Donald Trump Jr.’s infamous June 2016 meeting is undergoing further scrutiny. According to The New York Times, the Kremlin was made aware of the scheduled meeting between Donald Trump’s son and the Russian government connected attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya.
The New York Times reports Veselnitskaya shared her talking points with Yuri Y. Chaika, who is Russia’s prosecutor general and is known as the “Master of Kompromat,” which The New York Times reports is the man who knows how to find and deliver dirt on a political opponent. The news outlet says that “interviews and records” show Veselnitskaya showed the Russian government memos before sitting down with Donald Trump Jr. and associates.
“The coordination between the Trump Tower visitor and the Russian prosecutor general undercuts Ms. Veselnitskaya’s account that she was a purely independent actor when she sat down with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Paul J. Manafort, then the Trump campaign chairman,” the New York Times reports.
NYTimes added, “It also suggests that emails from an intermediary to the younger Mr. Trump promising that Ms. Veselnitskaya would arrive with information from Russian prosecutors were rooted at least partly in fact — not mere “puffery,” as the president’s son later said.”
These memos were reportedly the same information that Veselnitskaya had given GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher when he visited Moscow. Rohrabacher’s role in the Russian-Trump election is confusing considering the U.S. officials had warned him that Russia was trying to recruit him as an operative. That said, Rohrabacher still visited Russia in 2016. During that trip, he used talking points to help organize a “show trial” of anti-Putin critic and human rights activists Bill Browder, who also had his visa revoked by the State Department this week.
It is important to note, Donald Trump Jr’s Trump Tower meeting was described by former Press Secretary Sean Spicer as a meeting centering around adoption and Magnitsky Act.