Donald Trump Jr. admitted on Saturday that he had a meeting with a lawyer linked to Russia. With him in the meeting were jared kushner, his brother-in-law, and Paul Manafort, the chair of the presidential campaign of his father, then-Republican candidate Donald Trump.
The June 9 meeting was held at the Trump Tower, The Washington Post reported. The meeting was to discuss a program about adopting Russian children. There was an active program about it that was popular with American families years ago, but the Russian government ended the program.
Meeting became public during G20 Summit
Donald met Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer. He said he was not told the name of the Kremlin lawyer prior to the meeting. Veselnitskaya is known as an advocate of sanctions against Russia. She fought the Magnitsky act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 2012 that banned U.S. interaction with Russians who have allegedly breached human rights.
The attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, isn't just "Kremlin-connected," she'a a well-known RU mob lawyer w/FSB linkshttps://t.co/FzMiWgdCkI
— John Schindler (@20committee) July 8, 2017
The approval of the law angered Russian President Vladimir Putin who retaliated by stopping the program that allowed adoption by Americans of Russian children.
The meeting between Donald, Kushner, and Manafort, and Veselnitskaya became public after President Trump and Putin met at the G20 Summit in Hamburg.
Meeting was disclosed by Kushner
Jamie Gorelick, the lawyer of Kushner, said in a statement that the son-in-law of the president disclosed the meeting with the Russian lawyer on his security clearance forms.
Donald said it was a short introductory meeting. It was not a campaign issue and they had no further meeting after the June 9 meeting, The New York Post reported.
Gorelick said Kushner submitted his SF-86 prematurely which excluded a list of any contacts with foreign government officials. Kushner submitted supplemental information the next day to include the meeting with the Russian lawyer.
William Browder, an American financier who lobbied for the sanctions on Russia, said the adoption program is often used as an issue by people opposed to the Magnitsky Act. Names of Russia individuals, such as judges and other public officials, were listed in the Act. The legislation banned the persons listed from doing business in the U.S.
The Act was named after Sergei Magnitsky, an auditor whom Browder hired but died in 2009 in a Russian prison. Magnitsky died under mysterious circumstances after he exposed a corruption scandal. Browder said he could not imagine Veselnitskaya bringing up anything during her meeting at the Trump Tower, except the Act. She was the lawyer of three Russian businessmen who faced fraud charges in the U.S. connected to Hermitage Capital, owned by Browder.