Donald Jr Told Kremlin Lawyer US Would Reconsider Anti Russian Laws

Donald Trump Jr offered to make changes to US laws which would benefit the Kremlin if his father won the election, according to a Russian lawyer who met him.

 Mr Trump Jr met Natalia Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, after she promised “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

Ms Veselnitskaya said in an interview with Bloomberg, published on Monday, that she had told the Senate Judiciary Committee she would answer all their questions, on condition that her answers be made public. The committee is yet to agree to her terms. 

Ms Veselnitskaya’s meeting with Mr Trump Jr, Paul Manafort – then the campaign manager – and Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law, is seen as a key element of Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to swing the election in favour of the Republican candidate. 

Ms Veselnitskaya has not given her side of the story until today. She said that she went to New York to show Trump campaign officials that major Democratic donors had evaded US taxes and to lobby against the so-called Magnitsky law – a ruling which punishes Russian officials for the murder of a Russian tax accountant who accused the Kremlin of corruption.

She told Bloomberg that Mr Trump Jr told her: “Looking ahead, if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it.

“I understand our side may have messed up, but it’ll take a long time to get to the bottom of it.”

During the 20 minute meeting, she claims he also requested financial documents to prove that money that allegedly evaded US taxes had gone to Mrs Clinton’s campaign.

Ms Veselnitskaya said she sent her memo to British music publicist Rob Goldstone, who brokered the meeting, in advance, so that Mr Trump Jr could familiarise himself with the issues - but he seemed not to have done so. She said that when she began laying out the case against the Ziffs, wealthy Democrat donors, she said that he asked: “This money the Ziffs got from Russia, do you have any financial documents showing that this money went to Clinton’s campaign?” 

When she said she did not have any documents, Mr Trump Jr grew disinterested, she recalled. Mr Kushner left after a few minutes and Mr Manafort appeared to have fallen asleep.

“The meeting was a failure; none of us understood what the point of it had been,’’ she said, adding she had no further contacts with the Trump campaign.

Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Mr Trump Jr, said the president’s son had no comment about the Bloomberg interview.

Mr Trump Jr  has said that he had wasted his time seeing the lawyer because she provided no useful information.

Ms Veselnitskaya said she was acting in a private capacity and not as a Russian government representative. But Bloomberg reported evidence of “an official imprimatur” in that she brought to the meeting a four-page talking-points memorandum in English that contained very similar information to a document she had provided to the office of Russia’s prosecutor general, Yuri Chaika, in 2015.

It was not clear whether her testimony to the Senate committee would be made public.