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That Russian Lawyer Don Jr. Met at Trump Tower Is Finally Coming Clean About Her Ties to the Kremlin

Ya don't say.

That Russian Lawyer Don Jr. Met at Trump Tower Is Finally Coming Clean About Her Ties to the Kremlin
YURY MARTYANOV/AFP/Getty Images

In June 2016, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya met at Trump Tower with members of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, including Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort.

The story behind the purpose of the meeting has evolved since it first became public knowledge.

Don Jr. initially claimed the meeting was about adoption, but the younger Trump's emails showed a different purpose: to get damaging information about then Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Veselnitskaya's story is changing too. She originally claimed she was simply a private lawyer with no official Russian government ties.

But now, in an interview set to air tonight, Veselnitskaya admits she was an informant working with the Kremlin, specifically Yuri Y. Chaika, the prosecutor general.

In a November statement in response to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, Veselnitskaya wrote:

“I operate independently of any governmental bodies. I have no relationship with Mr. Chaika, his representatives and his institutions other than those related to my professional functions as a lawyer."

But in the interview, Veselnitskaya reveals:

I am a lawyer, and I am an informant. Since 2013, I have been actively communicating with the office of the Russian prosecutor general."

Her meeting with the president's eldest son and son-in-law remains a focus of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.