NEW REPORT: The 2016 Trump Tower Meeting May Have Been Coordinated with the Kremlin
Natalia V. Veselnitskaya
A report with the New York Times today is saying that there was more to the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr.  several members of the Trump campaign team  and a Kremlin-connected attorney   Natalia V. Veselnitskaya   was more calculated than originally reported.
But interviews and records show that in the months before the meeting   Ms. Veselnitskaya  had discussed the allegations with one of Russiaâs most powerful officials  the prosecutor general  Yuri Y. Chaika. And the memo  she  brought with  her  closely followed a document that Mr. Chaikaâs office had given to an American congressman two months earlier  incorporating some paragraphs verbatim. The coordination between the Trump Tower visitor and the Russian prosecutor general undercuts Ms. Veselnitskayaâs account that  she  was a purely independent actor when  she  sat down with Donald Trump Jr.  Jared Kushner  the presidentâs son-in-law  and Paul J. Manafort  then the Trump campaign chairman. 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 â not mere âpuffery â as the presidentâs son later said.
The memo that  Ms. Veselnitskaya  brought to the Trump Tower meeting alleged that Ziff Brothers Investments  an American firm  had illegally purchased shares in a Russian company and evaded tens of millions of dollars of Russian taxes. The company was the financial vehicle of three billionaire brothers  two of them major donors to Democratic candidates including Mrs. Clinton. By implication   Ms. Veselnitskaya   said  those political contributions were tainted by âstolenâ money. Kremlin officials viewed the charges as extremely significant. The Ziff brothers had invested in funds managed by William F. Browder  an American-born financier and fierce Kremlin foe. Mr. Browder was the driving force behind a 2012 law passed by Congress imposing sanctions on Russian officials for human rights abuses. The law  known as the Magnitsky Act  froze Western bank accounts of officials on the sanctions list â including Mr. Chaikaâs deputy â and banned them from entering the United States. It was named after Sergei L.Magnitsky  a tax lawyer who had worked for Mr. Browder and who died in a Moscow jail after exposing a massive fraud scheme involving Russian officials.
As a former prosecutor for the Moscow regional government   Veselnitskaya  has traveled to the U.S. quite a bit  in order to lobby against the Magnitsky Act.
While investigating Mr. Browder and his investors   Ms. Veselnitskaya  unearthed what  she  considered evidence of a financial and tax fraud scheme. In October 2015   she  took  her  findings about Mr. Browder and the Ziff brothers directly to Mr. Chaika  Russiaâs top prosecutor and a man whom  she  has said  she  knows personally. Mr. Chaika was highly pleased with  her  report  according to a former colleague of  Ms. Veselnitskaya  who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions. In April 2016   Ms. Veselnitskaya  teamed with Mr. Chaikaâs office to pass the accusations to an American congressional delegation visiting Moscow. An official with the Russian prosecutor generalâs office gave a memo detailing the charges â stamped âconfidentialââ to Representative Dana Rohrabacher  a California Republican who is considered to be one of the most pro-Russia lawmakers in Congress and who heads a subcommittee that helps oversee U.S. policy toward Russia.
 Ms. Veselnitskaya  handed a nearly identical memo to Representative French Hill  Republican of Arkansas.  She  has said  she  also met with Mr. Rohrabacher then  although he said that he does not recall the encounter. The next month  Mr. Chaikaâs office described the alleged scheme on prosecutor generalâs website.
The documents brought by  Veselnitskaya  resembled the same documents given to Rohrabacher  with some of the wording exact.
Russian elites have been known to mount independent initiatives to curry favor with the Kremlin. But a number of well-known Russian analysts called it inconceivable that  Ms. Veselnitskaya  would have bypassed  her  own government to deliver what are now unmistakably official allegations to an American presidential campaign. Said Gleb O. Pavlovsky  the president of the Fund for Effective Politics  a Moscow research institute: âShe had guidance.â
A report with the New York Times today is saying that there was more to the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr.  several members of the Trump campaign team  and a Kremlin-connected attorney    [TGT]    was more calculated than originally reported.
But interviews and records show that in the months before the meeting   Ms. Veselnitskaya  had discussed the allegations with one of Russiaâs most powerful officials  the prosecutor general  Yuri Y. Chaika. And the memo  she  brought with  her  closely followed a document that Mr. Chaikaâs office had given to an American congressman two months earlier  incorporating some paragraphs verbatim. The coordination between the Trump Tower visitor and the Russian prosecutor general undercuts Ms. Veselnitskayaâs account that  she  was a purely independent actor when  she  sat down with Donald Trump Jr.  Jared Kushner  the presidentâs son-in-law  and Paul J. Manafort  then the Trump campaign chairman. 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 â not mere âpuffery â as the presidentâs son later said.
The memo that  Ms. Veselnitskaya  brought to the Trump Tower meeting alleged that Ziff Brothers Investments  an American firm  had illegally purchased shares in a Russian company and evaded tens of millions of dollars of Russian taxes. The company was the financial vehicle of three billionaire brothers  two of them major donors to Democratic candidates including Mrs. Clinton. By implication   Ms. Veselnitskaya   said  those political contributions were tainted by âstolenâ money. Kremlin officials viewed the charges as extremely significant. The Ziff brothers had invested in funds managed by William F. Browder  an American-born financier and fierce Kremlin foe. Mr. Browder was the driving force behind a 2012 law passed by Congress imposing sanctions on Russian officials for human rights abuses. The law  known as the Magnitsky Act  froze Western bank accounts of officials on the sanctions list â including Mr. Chaikaâs deputy â and banned them from entering the United States. It was named after Sergei L.Magnitsky  a tax lawyer who had worked for Mr. Browder and who died in a Moscow jail after exposing a massive fraud scheme involving Russian officials.
As a former prosecutor for the Moscow regional government   Veselnitskaya  has traveled to the U.S. quite a bit  in order to lobby against the Magnitsky Act.
While investigating Mr. Browder and his investors   Ms. Veselnitskaya  unearthed what  she  considered evidence of a financial and tax fraud scheme. In October 2015   she  took  her  findings about Mr. Browder and the Ziff brothers directly to Mr. Chaika  Russiaâs top prosecutor and a man whom  she  has said  she  knows personally. Mr. Chaika was highly pleased with  her  report  according to a former colleague of  Ms. Veselnitskaya  who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions. In April 2016   Ms. Veselnitskaya  teamed with Mr. Chaikaâs office to pass the accusations to an American congressional delegation visiting Moscow. An official with the Russian prosecutor generalâs office gave a memo detailing the charges â stamped âconfidentialââ to Representative Dana Rohrabacher  a California Republican who is considered to be one of the most pro-Russia lawmakers in Congress and who heads a subcommittee that helps oversee U.S. policy toward Russia.
 Ms. Veselnitskaya  handed a nearly identical memo to Representative French Hill  Republican of Arkansas.  She  has said  she  also met with Mr. Rohrabacher then  although he said that he does not recall the encounter. The next month  Mr. Chaikaâs office described the alleged scheme on prosecutor generalâs website.
The documents brought by  Veselnitskaya  resembled the same documents given to Rohrabacher  with some of the wording exact.
Russian elites have been known to mount independent initiatives to curry favor with the Kremlin. But a number of well-known Russian analysts called it inconceivable that  Ms. Veselnitskaya  would have bypassed  her  own government to deliver what are now unmistakably official allegations to an American presidential campaign. Said Gleb O. Pavlovsky  the president of the Fund for Effective Politics  a Moscow research institute: âShe had guidance.â