The ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee said Friday that reports that a former Soviet counterintelligence officer joined a June 2016 meeting between a Russian lawyer and members of the Trump campaign “adds another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting.”
“Today’s report that a former Russian counter-intelligence officer was also present during the meeting with Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, if accurate, adds another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said in a statement.
He added: “Similarly, reports that Jared Kushner had to twice amend his security clearance forms, only recently acknowledging this pivotal meeting, should cause his clearance to be reviewed — and if he was not perfectly candid — immediately revoked.”
The former counterintelligence officer to whom Schiff referred is Rinat Akhmetshin, now a lobbyist, who confirmed to the Associated Press Friday that he was in the meeting with Veselnitskaya, Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. NBC News first reported Akhmetshin’s attendance Friday, but did not name him.
According to emails released by Trump Jr. on Tuesday in anticipation of a New York Times story on the same messages, he and the top Trump campaign aides attended the meeting after being promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s campaign.
In an interview with MSNBC Friday, Schiff added that Akhmetshin “provides yet another conduit back to the Kremlin.”
Read Schiff’s full statement below:
“Today’s report that a former Russian counter-intelligence officer was also present during the meeting with Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, if accurate, adds another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting. Donald Trump, Jr.’s denial of any such meetings, his misleading initial representation that it dealt only with adoptions — a statement evidently approved by the White House — and his later admission that the whole purpose of taking the meeting was to receive the support of the Russian government in the form of damaging information about Hillary Clinton paint a portrait of consistent dissembling and deceit when it comes to the campaign’s meetings with Russian officials and intermediaries.
“Similarly, reports that Jared Kushner had to twice amend his security clearance forms, only recently acknowledging this pivotal meeting, should cause his clearance to be reviewed — and if he was not perfectly candid — immediately revoked.
“Finally, whether the additional party or parties present during the meeting with these top Trump campaign personnel at the time Donald Trump had seized the nomination were connected directly with Russian intelligence or not, it is clear the Kremlin got the message that Donald Trump welcomed the help of the Russian government in providing dirt on Hillary Clinton. This was true not only because Donald Jr. said he would love such help, and, even if we are to believe his account of the meeting, expressed great dismay that he didn’t receive the damaging information he was promised, but also because candidate Trump himself made very clear his desire that the Russian government hack Hillary Clinton’s emails, saying they would be richly rewarded. Indeed that has proved all too true.”
