A grand jury impaneled by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller heard secret testimony from a Russian-American lobbyist who reportedly attended a June 2016 meeting Donald Trump Jr., the Associated Press reports.
Rinat Akhmetshin served as an officer in the former Soviet military and is a fairly well-known lobbyist in Washington.
Akhmetshin reportedly met with Mueller’s grand jury on Aug. 11 and provided testimony under sworn oath for several hours. His testimony concerned the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York City, which was attended by Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort and Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya.
The June 2016 meeting has been at the center of the allegations that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to undermine the 2016 presidential election. Akhmetshin’s private meeting with Mueller’s grand jury likely shows that Mueller views it as a key event in his investigation.
Mueller was appointed in May to potential links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. He also has the legal authority to press charges.
Trump Jr.’s says the meeting was sold to him an opportunity to obtain damaging information on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. His statement was corroborated when Trump Jr. released an email exchange in which publicist Rob Goldstone told him that a Russian lawyer “offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary [Clinton] … and would be very useful to your father.”
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