page_title: Natalia Veselnitskaya
section_title: Advocacy against the Magnitsky Act
hierarchical_section_title: Natalia Veselnitskaya / Advocacy against the Magnitsky Act
caption_attribution_description: English: A House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on “U.S. Policy Toward Putin’s Russia,” on June 14, 2016. Former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, center right, testified as Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, center left, sat behind him. (House Foreign Affairs Committee)
context_page_description: Natalia Vladimirovna Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer. Her clients include Pyotr Katsyv, an official in the state-owned Russian Railways, and his son Denis Katsyv, whom she defended against a money laundering charge in New York. On January 8, 2019, Veselnitskaya was indicted in the United States with obstruction of justice charges for allegedly having attempted to thwart the Justice Department investigation into the money laundering charges against Katsyv.
  Her June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower attracted attention in connection with the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, as well as to the role of her business contacts at research firm Fusion GPS in investigating the interference.
context_section_description: In 2009, Sergei Magnitsky, a tax accountant who had accused Moscow law enforcement of stealing $230 million in tax rebates from his client, was beaten to death in jail. In 2012, Magnitsky's client, Bill Browder, secured passage of the American Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on the officials involved. Russian President Vladimir Putin responded with the Dima Yakovlev Law banning Americans from adopting Russian children.
  In February 2015, the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative was created in Delaware. Rinat Akhmetshin, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Russia, who has worked as a Washington lobbyist since 1998, agreed to lobby for the foundation backed by Denis Katsyv. From 1986 to 1988, Akmetshin served in the Soviet Army, where he obtained the rank of sergeant and worked in a counterintelligence unit for the KGB. Veselnitskaya's campaign included an unsuccessful attempt in Washington to repeal the Magnitsky Act and to "keep Mr. Magnitsky’s name off the law".
  On June 9, 2016, Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner in Trump Tower, which they scheduled after Emin Agalarov's publicist, Rob Goldstone, told Donald Jr. that she was a "Russian government attorney" offering incriminating information on Hillary Clinton due to "its government’s support for Mr. Trump". Regarding the meeting, Trump Jr. initially wrote, "I love it" but, in July 2017, said the meeting "was a waste of time". Donald Trump Jr. said that Veselnitskaya used the meeting to criticize the Magnitsky Act. Veselnitskaya herself commented that she mostly talked about Browder's (alleged) misdeeds, whereas the Trump team wanted what she termed "some sort of grenade".
  Akhmetshin said he met with Veselnitskaya for lunch and she asked him to attend the meeting, which he then did. According to Akhmetshin, Veselnitskaya's translator, Anatoli Samachornov, also attended. He said Veselnitskaya left a document with Trump Jr.
  Also on or around June 9, prior to and following the Trump Tower meeting, Veselnitskaya met with Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn R. Simpson, ostensibly related to hearings that involved their mutual client Denis Katsyv, concerning charges of Russian tax fraud and money laundering originally uncovered by Magnitsky. The Simpson–Veselnitskaya meetings were denied by Veselnitskaya herself but confirmed by Simpson's lawyer. This has led to speculation from Trump allies linking the meetings to Fusion GPS's concurrent work assembling the Steele Dossier against then-candidate Trump.
  Two days after the Trump Tower meeting, the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation (who Akhmetshin worked for, as a lobbyist) registered to lobby Congress on the Magnitsky Act.
  Later that June, Veselnitskaya screened a film by Andrei Nekrasov at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., that was critical of Magnitsky. She was "deeply involved in the making of The Magnitsky Act – Behind the Scenes". She provided the film crew with "the real proofs and records of testimony" according to RussiaTV5, a "station whose owners are known to be close to Mr. Putin". In April 2016, the European Parliament refused to show this film about Magnitsky as "pro-Russian propaganda".
  Veselnitskaya represented Pyotr Katsyv's son, Denis, when Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, charged him with money laundering. Federal prosecutors accused Katsyv of using Manhattan real estate deals to launder money stolen from Browder's Hermitage Capital Management. The Russian government then banned Bharara from traveling there.
  In October 2015, Veselnitskaya traveled to Manhattan, with her clients, for a deposition in the money laundering case. After being told, at the end of the deposition, that the counterparty would be required to reimburse her for her expenses, she billed the U.S. government $50,000, for an $800 meal, eight grappas, and a $995-per-night room at the Plaza Hotel.
  According to Swiss news sources, a Swiss agent and Russia specialist from the Federal Office of Police, investigating the Prevezon transactio
caption: A House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on “U.S. Policy Toward Putin’s Russia,” on June 14, 2016. Former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul testified as Veselnitskaya sat behind him.
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