And just think, “Trump the Dad” praised his son for being transparent.
Last night, news broke that Trump said he might have heard about that meeting.
This morning, we were treated to more breaking news. A fifth person was in attendance who was working with the Russian attorney in opposition to a man who opposed Putin. In other words, the fifth person was working on the same side as Vladimir Putin.
I’ve been wondering how did a Russian attorney, who did not speak English, communicate with Trump and company. This morning, when the announcement was made that a fifth person was there at the meeting, I again wondered whether that fifth person was an interpreter?
Wrong.
Now, it is being reporter that a sixth person was present, an interpreter.
Who is that fifth person?
Well, a former KGB guy who dropped a few words that could absolutely stir those Russians beets into a thick mush:
Ms Akhmetshin claims Ms Veselnitskaya brought a plastic folder with her, containing printed-out documents that detailed what she believed could potentially be the flow of illicit funds to the Democratic National Committee. Veselnitskaya presented the contents of the documents to the Trump associates and suggested that making the information public could help the Trump campaign, he said.
Mr Trump Jr asked the lawyer if she had all the evidence to back up her claims, according to Mr Akhmetshin, including whether she could demonstrate the flow of the money. But Ms Veselnitskaya allegedly claimed the Trump campaign would need to research it more.
Ms Veselnitskaya has denied offering any information to Mr Trump Jr and working for the Russian state.
This is how a reporter for Axios described the fifth man whose identity was just revealed:
https://www.axios.com/rinat-akhmetshin-trump-tower-2459179549.html
The original NBC News reports suggested that Akhmetshin's intelligence past somehow has rolled forward until now, putting Russian spies in the same room with Donald Trump, Jr. Nothing I picked up in numerous intense reporting experiences with Akhmetshin over the years — in the former U.S.S.R. and the U.S. — suggested any current such relationships.
Last year, Akhmetshin took on clients attempting to tarnish Bill Browder, the former high-rolling American investor in Moscow and defender of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who only turned on the Russian president when he kicked him out of the country. Browder has since become one of Putin's fiercest critics, driven by the murder of his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, in a Moscow prison.
Four days after the Trump Tower meeting, Akhmetshin was responsible for arranging the high-profile showing of a revisionist anti-Magnitsky film at Washington, DC's Newseum.
I last communicated with Akhmetshin on July 11. When the news of this story broke this morning, I attempted to reach him via email, phone and text. He has not yet responded.
