Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and U.S.-based businessman Irakly (Ike) Kaveladze (pictured) both attended the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, British publicist Rob Goldstone, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and a translator.
One year later, the men got together again, but this time it was just the two of them having coffee in Moscow.
The Moscow meeting in June, which has not been previously disclosed, is now under scrutiny by investigators who want to know why the two men met in the first place and whether there was some effort to get their stories straight about the Trump Tower meeting just weeks before it would become public, The Associated Press has learned.
The New York Times broke the news of the Trump Tower meeting on July 8, 2107.
Both Akhmetshin and Kaveladze have met behind closed doors with Congressional investigators recently. Sources tell the AP Akhmetshin said he asked to meet Kaveladze in Moscow to argue the two should expose the Trump Tower meeting before it became a big deal in the press:
Scott Balber, a lawyer for Kaveladze, confirmed that his client and Akhmetshin met over coffee and that the Trump Tower meeting a year earlier was “obviously discussed.” But Balber denied [Kaveladze] had been contacted by associates of Trump before he took the meeting with Akhmetshin, or had been aware of plans to disclose the Trump Tower gathering to the U.S. government.
Balber said the men did not discuss strategy or how to line up their stories, and did not meet in anticipation of the Trump Tower meeting becoming public and attracting a barrage of news media attention.
Akhmetshin is a former Soviet military officer whom the Kremlin denies knowing even though he lobbies extensively for Putin's top concern -- the repeal of Magnitsky Act sanctions. Kaveladze has worked for Aras and Emin Agalarov’s real estate company since 2004. In November 2000, the U.S. Congress investigated Kaeladze for possible money laundering.
More: Moscow meeting in June 2017 under scrutiny in Trump probe (AP)