That didn’t take long.
The Associated Press is reporting that NBC’s unnamed lobbyist is Rinat Akhmetshin, a local pro-Russian lobbyist. He lobbies for the US to lift sanctions against Russia. On vacation in France, Akhmetshin admitted to AP that he was at the collusion meeting in Trump Tower, New York, although he denies any connections to Russian intelligence services.
Donald, Junior, has already admitted that he thought he was colluding with the Russian government to get dirt on Hillary. This is a violation of several US laws, but Junior claims that because the meeting didn’t provide any such material (he only stayed out of a sense of politeness), it was some variation on “no injury; no foul”.
I’m sure that’s a judicial precedent I just haven’t seen yet.
Akhmetshin says he was notified so late, he had to go in jeans and a t-shirt. Probably why the three Trump people all forgot he was there. But he recognized Trump, Jr, Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner.
Trump Jr, and Akhmetshin do agree that the meeting was for Natalia Veselnitskaya to provide documents purportedly showing how groups in Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Clinton. That was the dirt that the Trump people were hoping for.
According to Donald, Jr (Uday), the lawyer brought nothing and had no information, and only lobbied for the US to lift sanctions on Russia. Sorry: “for the orphans.” There were no documents, no dirt, and no kompromat. He was crushed. But polite.
According to Akhmetshin, Veselnitskaya (the lawyer) had a plastic folder of printouts. He didn’t know if they were legitimate, but the lawyer presented them as proof, albeit proof that needed more research. Here’s the AP article:
“This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money,” Akhmetshin recalled her saying.
Trump Jr. asked the attorney if she had sufficient evidence to back up her claims, including whether she could demonstrate the flow of the money. But Veselnitskaya said the Trump campaign would need to research it more. After that, Trump Jr. lost interest, according to Akhmetshin.
“They couldn’t wait for the meeting to end,” he said.
Akhmetshin said Veselnitskaya left the folder to the Trump people and suggested they make them public.
So the part where the meeting ended quickly wasn’t a lie. But for the rest? It’s like they’re trying to break a record somewhere.
