Martin Longman, web editor for The Washington Monthly, gives a valuable explanation of the Russian lawyer Natalia Vesilnitskaya and why she wanted to meet with the highest levels of the Trump campaign.
We were told that she was lobbying to remove the American sanctions that provoked Putin to suspend the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans. What a touching story. It was all about the children. Of course, Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort would drop whatever they were doing to “take a meeting” about Russian orphans in June 2016 as Trump Sr. was wrapping up the GOP nomination. What could have been more important?
As Longman explains, Natalia V was no ordinary lawyer. She was the lawyer for the Russian mafia.
At the time, as the previous post contended, she was locked in a struggle over $230 million that had been stolen from the Russian treasury. Preet Bahara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York was her adversary. Trump personally assured Preet in a meeting at Trump Tower during the transition that he could keep his job, where he had a reputation as a fiercely independent prosecutor of government corruption. But Trump fired Preet. Natalia won.
We have been told that Natalia doesn’t speak English, but a photograph surfaced recently showing her sitting in a second-row seat at Congressional hearings directly behind Obama’s Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, when he testified in 2014. There doesn’t seem to be an interpreter next to her.
It gets curiouser and curiouser.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Fox News is characterizing the drip, drip, drip of information about the Russian interest in US politics and politicians as “hysteria of the left.”
I think that rhetoric may reflect some growing anxiety on the right.
Journalists are disclosing some records that are hard to dispute. I think the attacks on the press have made some journalists more cautious and eager to keep clear of absurd claims. Even so, speculation is rampant and that fuels cynicism about the work of the press and its role in a democratic society.
The right wing is also pushing the idea that Fusion GPS has a Russia/ Hillary link – a premise thinner than water. The right wing takes the real story and then unimaginatively, changes the names to implicate Dems.
As we all know nothing came of that meeting.some point to her Clinton ties which makes this even more interesting!I wish that the special prosecutor would pursue more meaningful issues such as the Loretta Lynch tarmac issues and the allegations of Clinton foundation pay to play!unfortunately we no longer have a truly free and unbiased press,so the truly important issues never really receive the coverage they need Or deserve.free speech is a casualty and I fear dead due to the present environment on university campuses that has been promulgated by both administrators and faculty.I pray that this will change as I miss the dialogues we once were able to exchange between students and faculty,exchanges that today would be prohibited by the campus “thought police”
John Trask,
A reminder: Hillary Clinton did not get elected. Trump is in the White House. He has the power to do enormous harm to this country. Imagine the dirt that Putin has on him. How many meetings did the Trump campaign have with Russian government operatives? Putin knows.
Dr.Ravitch there is no dirt on trump.the real truth is he is our president and we need to put our differences apart and work together with him.Our common goal should be to bring good things to this country.Not to cause harm.Division can only hurt us.Dr.Ravitch, mrs.Clinton lost the election.this is a fact.I know you can’t accept this ,but it’s true.we really need to move on for the good of this wonderful country that we call home! I am amused thinking about all the celebrities who threatened to move to another country if Mr.Trump got elected. Not one of them left!in fact some are repatriating,notably George Clooney! Maybe, despite the result of the elections , it ain’t so bad here!
Putin won the election.
John,
Do you deny that Donald Jr. Met with Natalia Vesilnitskaya? Did the fake news media make up that story?
Trask is jabbering for fun or he lives in the la la land, of right wing making. Quoting a Fox executive. “Our viewers don’t want to be informed they want to feel informed.” Apparently, the viewers must want to rationalize that their votes didn’t put the interest of the Russian mob and Putin, ahead of those of the American people.
“the real truth is he is our president and we need to put our differences apart and work together with him”
As that great philosopher Bug Bunny once said, “High-lair-eee-ous!”
I’m sure John was just as adamant about this sentiment with the Johnson/Carter/Clinton/Obama administrations (huge sarcasm alert).
On another note, as Reuters reports (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-campaign-donald-jr-lawyer-paid_us_596a76d3e4b03389bb17c696?mu5&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009), not that we needed any more evidence, but the fact that our Dear Leader’s regime is a kleptocracy is obvious to everyone except his true believers/cult members. His “reelection campaign” raised $8 million in the second quarter of 2017 and spent at least $4.4 million already. Our Dear Leader-in-waiting’s lawyer got $50K just a week before the news about his collusion meetings became public. Almost $90K went to the Trump organization for “legal fees” even though it is not a law firm. And let’s not get into the millions that are being spent on our Dear Leader’s family to cover Secret Service expenses for private events in places like Uruguay and Vancouver, Canada. They have made living off of Other People’s Money an art form that grifters around the world look upon with desperate envy.
But I’m sure John sees all of this as an example of entrepreneurism in its most pure form.
…Bugs Bunny…
Sorry, for that typo.
The impropriety of the meeting is a huge red flag.
The meeting happened we all agree! Honestly so what! My main point is we need to stop this malignant obstruction and work together for the greater good of this nation.
So you think it was okay for Trump’s son, son-in-law, and campaign manager to meet with Putin’s agents?
Have you noticed that Trump regularly insults our allies but never has a bad word for this brutal dictator who has a bad habit of murdering dissidents and journalists?
No, I won’t fall in line and accept as president a man who is systematically destroying environmental regulation, relationships with our allies, Medicaid, public education, and civil rights. There is no part of his agenda that I can support.
I agree with Macron of France: let’s make our planet great again.
Are Trump, McConnell, Erik Prince and Paul Ryan going to lead? If so, no thanks. I prefer someone who values the American interest foremost.
Mr. Trask, I don’t seem to remember you commenting on this site when Obama was the subject of vicious, scurrilous smears, and when everything he tried to do (with the exception of so-called education reform) was blocked by the Republicans.
Please spare us your selective high-mindedness.
John trask
There is nothing burger between your ears .
The meeting that never happened and then was about adoptions was detailed in emails released by the NY Times. Oh I’m sorry I’ll have to change my disclosure form on that. Was release by Uday five minutes before the time that the NYT said it was going to release them.
At that meeting what happened was a memorandum of understanding between the FSB and the Trump campaign . In exchange for Russian help, Trump would drop the sanctions on Russia if he won . Secret channels were arranged that would help Russia target specific voters with deleterious information. And the email releases followed shortly after .
At the Republican Convention the Trump Team removed language tht would have been unfavorable to Russian interests in the Ukraine.as a sign of good faith. .
Such amateurs that they thought they wouldn’t get caught. There were no amateurs in the room just a bunch of low life’s . Manafort was a pro involved since 1976.in Ford, Reagan and Bush campaigns. He knew exactly how illegal that meeting was . “Sad so Sad. ”
Secret Channels that could no longer be operational once Trump had won the White House and his team would be surrounded by Secret Service and other Government personnel. Had they not won the election, Russian money would keep flowing into Trump/Kushner operations including Jared’s screw up at 666 Fifth avenue . Which is why after he and the( RANK AMATEUR former head of DIA )Flynn met with Kislyak, Jared then went on to meet with the PUTIN banker.
For the good of the country these criminals should all be brought to justice. The only question in my mind is whether they should be hung ,electrocuted or given an ineffective needle that causes a slow painful death.
Do you really think Russia wanted to be knocked out of first place in the control of energy by the U.S.? Clinton and the Obama administration were much more amenable to letting Russia be in control. Trump has already put American energy in first place.
The lawyer never should have been allowed into the U.S. in the first place … she didn’t qualify under Obama guidelines. Then there is the deal that her visa had expired … Seeing her pictured with Obama people eight days after her meeting with Trump Jr is disturbing to say the least.
When this happened there was no Russia hysteria …yet. I would not be surprised to find out it was a set up against the family just to try and create some dirt in case Trump was elected.
Have they identified the sixth person that was there yet?
Linda,
It might have been Putin.
“Trump has already put in first place”- the Russian mafia.
For Linda Giffin – this from CNN 4-13-2015: American oil production is booming — despite the crash in crude oil prices.
Rystad Energy estimates U.S. oil production will average 9.65 million barrels per day in 2015, exceeding the previous all-time record set in 1970.
It’s an unusual time to have a record-breaking year. The world currently has too much oil. The supply glut has caused crude prices to go from over $100 last summer to under $50 this year. The reversal in prices has caused serious pain in the energy industry, leading to over 51,000 layoffs, deep spending cuts and tumbling stock prices.
However, more and more oil continues to fly out of U.S. wells.
Related: Why OPEC can’t kill off US oil boom
Production has ramped up in recent months, rising in early April to 9.41 million barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That’s up a dramatic 31% from the year before. End quote.
2015, Obama was president as I remember.
Linda Giffin
“The lawyer never should have been allowed into the U.S. in the first place … she didn’t qualify under Obama guidelines. Then there is the deal that her visa had expired … Seeing her pictured with Obama people eight days after her meeting with Trump Jr is disturbing to say the least.”
Stop taking the Opioids
http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-trump-russia-1499974350-htmlstory.html
“At the Homeland Security Department, officials said that the Russian lawyer had been admitted to the country to handle a court case.
“Because she was coming here for a court case, there was a specific reason behind it,” spokesman Dave Lapan said.
Getting into the U.S. appears to have been extremely difficult for Veselnitskaya, however.
Before meeting Donald Trump Jr., Veselnitskaya had been traveling to the U.S. while defending a Russian firm against civil charges of money laundering and fraud filed by Justice Department lawyers in New York.
Prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in the Manhattan repeatedly impeded her entry, according to a person close to Veselnitskaya. In 2015, she publicly complained that the U.S. government had denied her a visa.
To attend court proceedings in the case, she was granted “parole,” a short-term entry authorization for noncitizens, after she was turned down for a regular visa. ”
The US Prosecutor who was breaking her chops to stick it to the Russians was Preet Bharara who fired by TRUMPUTIN to get him off the Russians .
And the photo was a very secret meeting place, called a congressional hearing and she happened to be sitting in the gallery behind the former Ambassador.
Fox News has been proven to cause mental disorders in most people who watch it. Look at the sickie at 1600 Pen . Soon to reside in the Pen .
“Do you really think Russia wanted to be knocked out of first place in the control of energy by the U.S.?”
If I were the Russians I would be terrified to see the largest economy in the World move away from dirty crappy fossil fuels and lead the world to a sustainable future of clean CHEAP renewable energy.
I believe Natalia is Natasha’s daughter by Boris.
TAGO!!!
Oh, Duane, thanks for the much-needed laughs!! (Especially needed after reading–& then responding to–Diane’s Lamar Alexander/ESSA post.)
What would we, here, do w/o you?!
Gracias a ti, rbmtk!
That connection just seemed to obvious to me! Although I haven’t decided whether the Boris is Yeltsin, Becker, Spassky or Badenuff.
Yuh, I snorted when I read in various reports “Veselnitskaya, who doesn’t speak English,”… “Natalia didn’t speak a word of English” a source said”… Give me a break. My guess is, her English is perfectly adequate for day-to-day, but she sensibly uses a translator for legal business.
My guess is that in a room full of idiots. The translator could be much more than a translator.
Oooo–how sinister, Joel!
But, probably true. We’d have to get someone into those meetings, such as in that great Seinfeld episode when Elaine couldn’t understand the Korean manicurists’ Korean, & rightly perceived them to be mocking her. Conveniently, Georg Costanza’s father had served in Korea, was fluent in the language &, so, Elaine brought him in to spy on their discussions, after which, of course, hilarity ensued.
Would that it were we could have such a “fly on the wall!”