he said i have this meeting in trump tower. why don t you come along? i would have thought that to get cleared into trump tower, to go see the campaign manager of the campaign, the son of the candidate, you would have, it would have been a record of who was going up to trump tower. somebody window to have cleared you in. at least according to his account. rinat s account. nothing of the count took place. they just strolled back in. nobody asked they will for any i.d. whatsoever and there he is sitting with the highest levels of the trump campaign. now, what might be, this might be exculpatory for the trump campaign. it would explain how they didn t know he was there. there was no record of him being there. if this account is true. on the other hand, if one has a more sinister view of events, or thinks this was part of an
after bill browder. the former hedge fund guy who now lives in london on. who basically ginned up or, the magnitsky act. he lobbied very strongly, u.s. congress, to go after human rights abusers in russia who he believed had killed magnitsky. i think we can surmise that what natalia was talking about were hedge fund contributions associated with bill browder s financial business. but rinat said he didn t see the folder. he didn t work on it. he doesn t know the contents of the folder beyond what natalia told him. can i take a step back here? to some extent, i think this is
reported that said quote top west wing aides are exasperated by the risk that more damaging news has yet to emerge. and about that more damaging news that had yet not i merged it came out this morning prior to the president s return from france. nbc news was the first to report that also in that meeting with don jr. and the russian lawyer in trump tower last june, a man who was formerlily a member of a soviet counterintelligence unit we now know his name rinat akmetshin, a russian american who now works as a lobbyist. some u.s. officials believe he still has ongoing ties with russian intelligence. something we should point out he has denied. discussing the meeting with the associated press, akmetshin said i never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest. you ll remember the original explanation for this meeting was adoption policy under u.s. sanctions. one american investors who
rinat akmetshin, the former soviet intelligence officer suspected by some u.s. officials of having ongoing ties to intelligence. he denies any current ties to russian spy agencies. however, senator chuck grassley, the chairman of the senate judiciary committee and a republican noted back in april, quote, that mr. rinat akmetshin has been accused of acting as an unregistered agent for russian interests and apparently has ties to russian intelligence. this brings the total number of participant in that meeting to at least six. according to the new york times. the sixth person was a translator. he said that he had come clean and there was nothing more to say. i m more than happy to be transparent about and it to cooperate. so as far as you know, this is everything. this is everything.
adoption wasn t even part of campaign. but nothing happened with the meeting today. zero happen. that s not what the lobbyist at the center of all this said. according to him, the russian lawyer brought with her a plastic fold we are printed out dpomts detail what had she believed was the flow of illicit funds to the democratic national committee. joined now. the rinat akmetshin is a lobbyist who has been in washington since the mid 1990s. a lot of us who report on international affairs knew him. he has worked on a lot of issues as both the lobbyist and a p.r. guy. having 22nd the former soviet