Russian lawyer who met with Trump campaign admits to being Kremlin informant
- The Russian lawyer who had a highly publicized meeting in Trump Tower contradicted earlier denials of being a Russian agent.
- Natalia Veselnitskaya told Senate Judiciary Committee in November she worked only as a private lawyer.
- But she admitted to NBC News she has been an informant to a top Russian prosecutor since 2013.
A Russian lawyer who promised damaging information to President Donald Trump's campaign on Hillary Clinton in 2016 admitted to being an informant for a top Kremlin official, The New York Times reported.
Natalia Veselnitskaya, who met in June 2016 with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and other Trump associates at Trump Tower, declared her previously undisclosed relationship with Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Y. Chaika in an interview with NBC News. The interview is set to be aired Friday, according to the Times.
"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."
This acknowledgement contradicts Veselnitskaya's previous statement in November to the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of its investigation of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election. She said then that she worked exclusively as a private lawyer with no professional ties to the Russian government.
"I operate independently of any governmental bodies," she told the committee. "I have no relationship with Mr. Chaika, his representatives and his institutions other than those related to my professional functions as a lawyer."
Veselnitskaya's comments to NBC News' Richard Engel came after he showed her emails obtained by an organization founded by Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, a former Russian oil tycoon and opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Times.
Business Insider reported in October the memo Veselnitskaya provided to the Trump campaign contained many of the same talking points as an April memo by Russian prosecutor's office that was given to a Republican representative upon her visit to Moscow and circulated through Capitol Hill after her return.
The Russian prosecutor general's office did not respond to requests for comment from the Times. In an email to the Times, Veselnitskaya said she would respond in two weeks.