Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, has closer ties to the Russian government than previously confirmed. Up until now, she has insisted she is not connected to the Kremlin.
But newly released emails show that in at least one instance two years earlier, the lawyer, Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, worked hand in glove with Russia’s chief legal office to thwart a Justice Department civil fraud case against a well-connected Russian firm.
Ms. Veselnitskaya also appears to have recanted her earlier denials of Russian government ties. During an interview to be broadcast Friday by NBC News, she acknowledged that she was not merely a private lawyer but a source of information for a top Kremlin official, Yuri Y. Chaika, the prosecutor general.
“I am a lawyer, and I am an informant,” she said. “Since 2013, I have been actively communicating with the office of the Russian prosecutor general.”
In written answers submitted to Congressional investigators last year, Veselnitskaya told a different story.
“I operate independently of any governmental bodies,” she wrote in a November statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I have no relationship with Mr. Chaika, his representatives and his institutions other than those related to my professional functions as a lawyer.”
But that claim had already been undercut last fall by revelations that her talking points for the Trump Tower meeting — detailing tax and financial fraud accusations against two Democratic Party donors tied to a Kremlin opponent — matched those in a confidential memorandum circulated by Mr. Chaika’s office.
And a sheaf of Ms. Veselnitskaya’s email correspondence released Friday appeared to show that her relationship with Mr. Chaika’s office is far closer than she has described.
The emails were obtained by Dossier, an organization set up by Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, a former tycoon who was stripped of his oil holdings, imprisoned and then exiled from his native Russia. He has emerged as a leading opponent of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Shown copies of the emails by Richard Engel of NBC News, Ms. Veselnitskaya acknowledged that “many things included here are from my documents, my personal documents.” She told the Russian news agency Interfax on Wednesday that her email accounts were hacked this year by people determined to discredit her, and that she would report the hack to Russian authorities.
In 2014, the U.S.Justice Department brought a civil fraud case against Prevezon Holdings Ltd., a real estate firm, and its owner, Denis P. Katsyv, a well-connected Russian businessman. Veselnitskaya was Katsyv's defense lawyer.
The Justice Department prosecutors charged Mr. Katsyv’s firm in 2013 with using real estate purchases in New York to launder a portion of the profits from a tax scheme in Russia. They were seeking Russian bank, tax and court records, the type of documents that typically form the crux of civil money-laundering cases. The Justice Department asked the Russian government to keep the matter confidential, “except as is necessary to execute this request,” according to court documents. Russia and the United States have a mutual legal assistance treaty governing law-enforcement requests.
The emails indicate that a senior prosecutor on Mr. Chaika’s staff, Sergei A. Bochkaryov, worked closely with Ms. Veselnitskaya to craft the Russian government response. She knew him well enough to address him in friendly terms.
“Dear Sergei Aleksandrovich!” Ms. Veselnitskaya wrote on Aug. 2, 2014, in one of at least 11 emails exchanged. “I am sending you the edits in the draft response, as per instructions. I am ready to answer any questions that arise, at any time convenient for you.”
The language in their final email exchange matches that of the prosecutor general’s official response to the Justice Department.
The judge in the case later wrote that the Russian government had “spurned” the Justice Department’s request for evidence, instead sending a lengthy treatise on why Ms. Veselnitskaya’s client was innocent.
Ms. Veselnitskaya’s involvement in the official communications with the Russian government “raises serious questions about obstruction of justice and false statements,” said Jaimie Nawaday, a former assistant United States attorney in Manhattan who was a prosecutor on the case.
She said Ms. Veselnitskaya’s actions should be referred to the United States attorney’s office for investigation, including whether she misrepresented herself to the court. “It’s completely outrageous,” Ms. Nawaday said.
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Moscow’s refusal to provide records to the American prosecutors dealt a severe blow to the case. In the end, the Justice Department agreed to settle it for about $6 million. Prevezon, which did not admit fault, has yet to pay.
Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was in the middle of the Prevezon case when he was fired.
Bharara was overseeing many cases at the time he was forced to leave his post. One of particular interest involved Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya who represented Denis P. Katsyv, the son of a Russian transportation magnate, as he faced money laundering charges in New York City as part of a larger ongoing investigation into a $230 million Russian tax fraud scheme. Katsyv’s Cyprus-based company, Prevezon Holdings Ltd., allegedly laundered stolen funds through the purchase of expensive commercial and residential Manhattan real estate.
The trial scheduled for Monday May 15, 2017 likely would have exposed details of suspected Russian mafia operations. But on the Friday before - May 12th - the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office settled. Prevezon paid $5.9 million and did not have to admit any wrongdoing.
The New York Times points out this is the second time a Putin opponent has played a role in exposing potential elements of Russia's 2016 election interference.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Khodorkovsky said someone had deposited the email records anonymously into an electronic drop box maintained by his organization.
This year, Aleksei A. Navalny, a key opposition leader in Russia, also publicized videos that he said hinted at a role for Oleg V. Deripaska, a well-known Russian oligarch, in the Russian government’s efforts to meddle in the American political process. A spokesman for Mr. Deripaska said Mr. Navalny’s accusations were utterly false.
Lawyer Who Was Said to Have Dirt on Clinton Had Closer Ties to Kremlin Than She Let On (New York Times)