There is now a big question mark on who is telling the truth about the June 9 meeting at Trump Tower. After Donald Trump Jr. initially said in a statement that he met Natalia Veselnitskaya to talk about the adoption of Russian families, the next day, he changed his story.
The son of the president, when confronted by The New York Times, admitted the meeting was about an intelligence report from the Kremlin lawyer who allegedly had dirt on Hillary Clinton. Veselnitskaya, however, in an interview on NBC's “Today,” has a different version of the meeting.
Not a Russian government representative
The female Russian lawyer said she did not request a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. She said that a man she did not know called and told her to meet Donald Jr. Veselnitskaya insisted she did not have any information about Clinton, but Donald Jr. asked her about it. The lawyer added she is not an agent of the Russian government which contradicted the email received by Trump that came from Rod Goldberg – the publicist he met at the Miss Universe 2013 pageant in Moscow.
She confirmed that Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort also attended the meeting, but Kushner left early, while Manafort was mostly on the phone. Veselnitskaya said the Trump campaign team was possibly looking for information about Clinton which they apparently wanted badly.
If her version is true, the president's son, according to legal experts, committed a crime by soliciting a contribution to the Trump campaign from a foreigner through services such as information collected on a political rival.
Donald Jr. hires a lawyer
Because of the legal trouble Donald Jr. faces with the different statements he made, he retained the service of Alan Futerfas, a defense lawyer known for taking cases of mobsters.
Futerfas became known as a defense attorney after he handled in 1994 clients who were accused of taking part in a power struggle in Colombia within a crime family.
With 10 dead people, including a teenager shot at a bagel shop, The Washington Post described the case as full of bloodshed, secrecy, and backstabbing similar to a Mafia movie.
After he won the case, Futerfas established a reputation as a lawyer for accused mobsters. Donald Jr. added to the growing number of the Trump campaign team that had retained lawyers for the Russian investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Futerfas is also familiar with white collar crimes. What is interesting about him is he is not just a lawyer but also a musician who studied bass trombone at The Julliard School in Manhattan. He continues to play the instrument in the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony.
