Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who infamously met last summer with President Trump’s eldest son and members of his 2016 campaign, represented Russia’s federal security service for more than a decade, Reuters reported Friday.
Ms. Veselnitskaya represented the FSB, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, between 2005 and 2013, according to Russian court documents cited by Reuters.
The documents indicate Ms. Veselnitskaya and her firm, Kamerton Consulting, represented the spy agency “in a legal wrangle over ownership of an upscale property in northwest Moscow,” Reuters reported.
Neither Ms. Veselnitskaya nor the FSB responded to requests for comment Friday, Reuters reported.
Largely unknown outside Russia until earlier this month, Ms. Veselnitskaya has attracted international attention after it was revealed that she participated in a June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. in addition to the president’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, furthering speculation surrounding the current administration’s relationship with Moscow as congressional and federal law enforcement investigators probe Russia’s role in last year’s race.
The president’s eldest son agreed to participate in the meeting last summer after being told a Russian attorney possessed sensitive information concerning the Trump campaign’s top rival, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, according to emails he released last week.
The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that the Russian government interfered in last year’s race to hurt Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, and investigators are now examining that meeting while looking for evidence of collusion between the Trump camp and Russian operatives.
At least eight people reportedly attended the meeting at Trump Tower last summer, including Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and Ike Kaveladze, an associate of a wealthy Russian oligarch with business ties to the Trumps, among others.
Ms. Veselnitskaya previously denied being employed by the Russian government and told state-run media this week she was willing to testify before Senate investigators. The president’s son, Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kushner are all scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill next week.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and others in Moscow have denied interfering in last year’s election, and the Trump administration has repeatedly rejected having colluded with Moscow.
Mr. Putin served in the KGB and later acted as the FSB’s director before becoming prime minister and eventually president.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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