Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya said on Tuesday that Donald Trump Jr. met her to obtain “inappropriate” information on sources of U.S. Democratic campaign financing.
“The question that I was asked was as follows: whether I had any financial records which might prove that the funds used to sponsor the D.N.C. were coming from inappropriate sources,” the previously obscure Moscow lawyer told NBC News.
Donald Trump Jr. described his 20-minute encounter with Veselnitskaya on June 9, 2016, as “a total waste of time.”
“Her words were turbid, ambiguous and senseless,” he said in a formal statement. “She didn’t offer any details or new information.”
Donald Trump Jr. said he met Veselnitskaya to discuss Russian orphans in the United States.
The Kremlin has said the lawyer has no official ties to the Russian government. “We don’t know who she is,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday.