Politics: A Soviet military officer turned lobbyist attended the Trump Jr. meeting — and there may have been a 6th person, too

A Soviet military intelligence officer turned lobbyist attended the meeting at Trump Tower last June between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr.

Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-born lobbyist who has been working with Veselnitskaya to overturn the Magnitsky Act since at least last year, confirmed his participation in the meeting to the AP.

Trump Jr. said he agreed to meet with Veselnitskaya last June at Trump Tower to discuss compromising information she said she had on Hillary Clinton, but was disappointed the meeting instead focused on Russia's adoption policy. Veselnitskaya later told NBC that she didn't have derogatory information on Clinton and asked for the meeting to talk about the Magnitsky Act.

The Magnitsky Act was passed to punish those suspected of being involved in the death of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered a $230 million tax fraud scheme in 2008 that implicated high-level Kremlin officials and allies of President Vladimir Putin. The scheme quickly snowballed into one of the biggest corruption scandals of Putin's tenure. The act authorizes the US president to deny visas to, and freeze the assets of, Russians believed to have been complicit in Magnitsky's death.

NBC initially declined to name Akhmetshin as the lobbyist who attended Veselnitskaya. But William Browder, the founder of the investment advisory firm Hermitage Capital who spearheaded the Magnitsky Act after his death, told Business Insider that there was "only one person" who fit the profile described by NBC.

Browder added that Akhmetshin's presence was highly significant.

"In the world of Russian intelligence, there is no such thing as a 'former intelligence officer,'" he said. "So in my opinion you had a member of Putin's secret police directly meeting with the son of the future next president of the United States asking to change US sanctions policy crucial to Putin."

There may also have been a sixth person at the meeting, Trump Jr.'s lawyer told NBC on Friday morning. But he did not elaborate further.

Radio Free Europe profiled Akhmetshin, who has denied any current relationship to Russia's spy agencies, last July — roughly one month after he organized the showing of an anti-Magnitsky Act film at the Newseum in Washington, DC. Akhmetshin was part of "a team of political and legal operatives" put together by Veselnitskaysa to lobby for the repeal of the Act, the New York Times reported last week.

“I am an American citizen since 2009 who pays taxes, earned his citizenship after living here since 1994, and swore an oath of loyalty to the United States of America,” Akhmetshin, a dual Russian-American citizen, told RFERL last year.

Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who founded the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, was also part of the team, the Times said. Simpson, who hired Christopher Steele to produce the Trump-Russia dossier, has denied being tied to efforts to overturn Magnitsky.

Additionally, RFE/RL reported, Akhmetshin visited the Russia-friendly congressman Dana Rohrabacher last May along with Ron Dellums, a former California congressman and longtime Washington lobbyist.Veselnitskaya, too, reportedly attended a dinner with Rohrabacher last year.

Dellums said the meeting was to discuss Russia's adoption policy, while Akhmetshin said it was to discuss the real-estate firm Prevezon.

Prevezon, owned by Denis Katsyv, was under investigation by the Department of Justice at the time of Veselnitskaya's meeting with Trump Jr. over whether it laundered millions of dollars — allegedly stolen in the tax fraud scheme that Magnitsky uncovered — into New York City real estate.

Denis Katsyv, the son of senior Russian government official Pyotr Katsyv, is represented by Veselnitskaya and has been at the center of efforts to overturn the adoption ban — which would start with the repeal of the Magnitsky Act. In February 2016, Katsyv registered a nonprofit company in Delaware called the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation, the stated aim of which is to overturn the ban.

Records list Akhmetshin as the lead lobbyist for the foundation, according to RFERL.

A Soviet military intelligence officer turned lobbyist attended the meeting at Trump Tower last June between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr. Read Full Story