The Associated Press reports Senate Intelligence Committee investigators met with with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at a Berlin hotel last month, and according to Veselnitskaya, she spoke about both the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting and information contained in the Steele dossier.
The Senate Intelligence Committee approached Veselnitskaya earlier this year, but she refused to go the United States, saying she feared for her safety. The lawyer and the committee's investigators instead met in a Berlin hotel on March 26 and talked for three hours.
"That was essentially a monologue. They were not interrupting me," Veselnitskaya said. "They listened very carefully...Their questions were very sharp, pin-pointed."
The investigators mainly wanted to know about Trump Tower meeting, she said. Veselnitskaya said she repeated her previous statements about it, insisting that she was not linked to the Russian government and merely wanted to discuss sanctions against Russia.
Veselnitskaya's said the Berlin interview also focused on information in memos compiled by a former British spy whose work was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Clinton's campaign. The dossier contains numerous allegations of Russian ties to Trump, his associates and the Trump campaign.
Veselnitskaya dismissed the dossier as "absolute nonsense." She insisted that Glenn Simpson, whose firm Fusion GPS was hired to compile the dossier and who was questioned by the House Intelligence Committee in January, had been "framed."
Veselnitskaya also says Special Counsel Robert Mueller has yet to get in touch.
Veselnitskaya alleged in her interview with the AP in downtown Moscow that if Mueller's team never questions her, it would mean that it "is not working to discover the truth."
Veselnitskaya is a well-connected Moscow lawyer who has worked with a company called Prevezon Holdings Ltd. The company's owner is the son of a former Russian government official and a fierce advocate for rolling back U.S. sanctions on Russia.
At the time of her 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, she was defending Prevezon against charges it had engaged in money laundering from a $230 million Russian tax fraud scheme.
Interestingly, Veselnitskaya also has reinserted herself in the Russia investigation conversation via a Sputnik interview published Sunday during which she talked about the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting.
"It was a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. which had nothing to do with any election campaign, Hillary Clinton's personality or Donald Trump Jr.'s father's personality. He was not even a single presidential candidate at that time," Veselnitskaya pointed out.
According to her, the New York Times presented this meeting last July as part of Russia's collusion with US President Donald Trump.
"And their versions then began to differ: some alleged about my embarrassing material on Hillary Clinton, while others claimed I tried to use such material against Trump in order to blackmail him to cancel the sanctions. In general, they are trying to destroy themselves, like cockroaches in a barrel," Veselnitskaya said.
Veselnitskaya's claims contradict the emails exchanged to set up the meeting. She also used her interview to attempt to discredit the Steele dossier, even though there is no indication she would have any unique insight.
"All the [alleged] interference in the US elections revolves around this Steel dossier, and I told the investigators that this document is a fake. I explained to them why this is a fake, citing specific examples," Veselntiskaya noted.
Sputnik still refers to Russia's election meddling as "alleged."
The investigation of Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US election, as well as the purported links between Trump and Russia – has been denied both by the White House and the Kremlin. It is beings conducted by independent special prosecutor Robert Mueller, as well as by both chambers of the US Congress.
Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations it interfered in the US election, with the Russian President's Dmitry Peskov calling the accusations "absolutely groundless."
Senate panel talks to Russian lawyer who met with Trump Jr. (AP)
Russian lawyer questions why Mueller hasn't contacted her (AP)
Russian Lawyer Sheds Light on Her Meeting With Trump Jr. in 2016 (Sputnik)