NATION
Saturday, July 15, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 11A
Former Soviet military officer joined Trump’s son’s meeting, too
WASHINGTON (AP) — A
prominent
Russian-American
lobbyist and former Soviet military
officer attended a meeting with
President Donald Trump’s son,
son-in-law and campaign chairman
last year, the lobbyist said Friday,
adding a new wrinkle to the Trump
team’s evolving explanations about
the June 2016 session.
Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his
involvement to The Associated Press
in an interview. He had not been
previously identified as a participant
in the meeting at Trump Tower in
New York, which was billed as part
of a Russian government effort to
help the Republican’s White House
campaign.
The meeting has heightened
questions about whether Trump’s
associates coordinated with Russia
to meddle in the presidential election
— to help him and thwart Hillary
Clinton — and whether they’ve
been forthcoming about their foreign
contacts. Federal and congressional
investigators are probing possible
connections between the campaign
and Moscow.
Akhmetshin has been reported
to have ties to Russian intelligence,
a characterization he dismisses
as a “smear campaign.” He’s a
well-known presence, lobbying for
Russian interests trying to under-
mine the allegations of a lawyer
who died in a Russian prison and
is the namesake of a U.S. sanctions
law.
Akhmetshin told the AP he
served in the Soviet military in a
counterintelligence unit but he was
never formally trained as a spy.
In emails posted by Donald
Trump Jr. earlier this week, a publi-
cist said he arranged the meeting
because a Russian lawyer wanted to
pass on negative information about
Democrat Clinton. The go-between
stated that the discussion was part of
a Russian government effort to help
the GOP candidate.
While Trump Jr. has confirmed
that Russian attorney Natalia
Veselnitskaya was in the meeting,
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty via AP
In this photo provided by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Rinat
Akhmetshin is photographed at the Newseum in Washington
in June 2016 after a documentary screening. Rep. Adam Schiff,
ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee says
reports that a second Russian person was in a meeting with Don-
ald Trump Jr. last summer “adds another deeply disturbing fact
about this secret meeting.”
he has not disclosed Akhmetshin’s
presence. The president’s son has
publically discounted the meet,
saying he did not receive the infor-
mation he was promised.
In a statement Sunday, Trump
Jr. said the attorney had said she
had information that people tied
to Russia were funding the Demo-
cratic National Committee and
supporting Clinton, a description
that Akhmetshin backed up in his
interview.
Akhmetshin said he accompa-
nied Veselnitskaya to Trump Tower
where they met an interpreter.
He said he had learned about the
meeting only that day.
Veselnitskaya brought with her
a plastic folder with printed-out
documents that detailed what she
believed was the flow of illicit funds
to the Democrats, Akhmetshin said.
Veselnitskaya presented the contents
of the documents to the Trump asso-
ciates and suggested that making the
information public could help the
campaign, he said.
“This could be a good issue to
expose how the DNC is accepting
bad money,” Akhmetshin recalled
her saying.
Trump Jr. asked the attorney if
she had sufficient evidence to back
up her claims, including whether
she could demonstrate the flow
of the money. But Veselnitskaya
said the Trump campaign would
need to research it more. After that,
Trump Jr. lost interest, according to
Akhmetshin.
“They couldn’t wait for the
meeting to end,” he said.
Akhmetshin said he does not
know if Veselnitskaya’s documents
were provided by the Russian
government. He said he thinks she
left the materials with the Trump
associates. It was unclear if she
handed the documents to anyone in
the room or simply left them behind,
he said.
Jared
Kushner,
Trump’s
son-in-law and current White House
senior adviser, and then-campaign
chairman Paul Manafort also
attended the meeting. Akhmetshin
said he recognized Kushner and
Trump Jr. He also said he recognized
Manafort because they worked in
“adjacent political circles” but never
together.
He said there were others in the
room but he didn’t know them.
Publicist Rob Goldstone, who
brokered the meeting via email with
Trump Jr., has told the AP that he
was there.
Asked about Akhmetshin’s
participation, Manafort spokesman
Jason Maloni declined comment.
Trump Jr.’s attorney did not respond
to inquiries, nor did a spokesman for
Kushner. Veselnitskaya has denied
having any ties to the Russian
government. When reached by
the AP this week, she declined
comment. She did not respond to
additional attempts to contact her
Friday.
The
confirmation
of
Akhmetshin’s participation in the
meeting drew swift reaction from
the top Democrat on the House
intelligence committee, Rep. Adam
Schiff of California, who said he
wanted Akhmetshin to appear
before the committee and provide
“any relevant documents and infor-
mation.”
Schiff said whether Akhmetshin
is connected to 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.” Schiff said Trump
Jr.’s omission of Akhmetshin’s role
in his public account of the meeting
and the president’s son’s shifting
explanations “paint a portrait of
consistent dissembling and deceit.”
Kushner disclosed the meeting
on his security clearance paperwork,
but Schiff said the Akhmetshin
revelation raises questions about
how much Kushner disclosed about
it. He said he believes Kushner’s
clearance should be reviewed, and
“if he was not perfectly candid,” the
clearance should be revoked.
Akhmetshin, who spoke to the AP
while on vacation in France where
he said he has been surfing, said the
meeting was “not substantive” and
he “actually expected more serious”
discussion.
“I never thought this would be
such a big deal, to be honest,” he
said.
The Russian government has
denied any involvement or knowl-
edge of the June 2016 meeting.
Asked Friday about Akhmetshin,
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s
spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told
reporters: “We don’t know anything
about this person.”
Akhmetshin has been identified
in media reports as a former officer
in Russia’s military intelligence
service known as the GRU. He has
denied that, saying he served in the
Soviet Army from 1986 to 1988 after
he was drafted but was not trained in
spy tradecraft. He said his unit oper-
ated in the Baltics and was “loosely
part of counterintelligence.”
Akhmetshin said he has not
been contacted by the U.S. special
counsel’s office or the FBI about the
meeting with Trump Jr. He said he’s
willing to talk with the Senate Judi-
ciary Committee, whose chairman
has pressed the Justice Department
about why Akhmetshin has not
registered as a foreign agent.
The chairman, Republican
Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said in a
March letter that Akhmetshin has
“reportedly admitted to being a
‘Soviet counterintelligence officer’
and has a long history of lobbying
the U.S. government for pro-Russia
matters.”
Akhmetshin said that the Justice
Department’s Foreign Agents
Registration Act unit sent him a
letter in April and told him, “it has
come to our attention you should
have filed for FARA.” He said he
didn’t believe he needed to file.
He has previously registered with
Congress for the lobbying work, and
he plans to raise this issue before
Grassley’s committee.
“I think I have a legal right to tell
my story,” he said.
Separately on Friday, the data
and digital director for Trump’s
presidential campaign said he will
speak with the House Intelligence
committee later this month as part of
its own Russia probe.
BRIEFLY
Winners and losers
complicate GOP’s
path on health bill
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Republicans’ latest health care plan
would create winners and losers
among Americans up and down
the income ladder, and across age
groups.
It would give consumers more
responsibility for their insurance
choices, a goal long held by
conservatives who argue that’s key
to a true health care market. Younger
adults and healthy people in the solid
middle class may find more agreeable
options. But low-income people may
not be able to afford coverage, along
with older and sicker adults.
And there are potential unintended
consequences for people with
employer-provided insurance,
currently about 170 million
Americans. Allowing individuals to
pay premiums from tax-sheltered
accounts may create incentives for
employers to stop offering coverage,
say some independent analysts.
The legislation would put limits
on federal spending for Medicaid,
a partnership program with states
to cover low-income people, the
disabled and nursing home residents.
The drawback is that state officials
could eventually face no-win
choices, such as having to pick
between paying for coverage for
low-wage working mothers and
support services for elderly people
trying to stay out of nursing homes.
Pence tells U.S. governors
it’s time for ‘end of
Obamacare’
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Vice
President Mike Pence told a bipartisan
gathering of governors on Friday that
he and President Donald Trump believe
the revised health care bill before the
U.S. Senate is the “right bill at the right
time to begin the end of Obamacare.”
“The president said he wanted a
health care system that in his words is
far less expensive and far better,” the
Republican vice president said during a
conference of the National Governors
Association. “We believe the Senate
health care bill begins to make the
president’s vision a reality.”
Pence urged governors to support
the plan, which was written by
Republicans and would make major
changes to the signature domestic
policy of former President Barack
Obama, a Democrat.
“I want to challenge each one
of you to work together with this
administration, to give the American
people access to the world-class health
care they deserve,” he said.
But several governors, Democratic
and Republican, expressed concern
about the bill and even outright
opposition.
Modest gains push U.S.
stocks to record highs
(AP) — Gains by big technology
and health care companies pushed U.S.
stocks modestly higher Friday, lifting
several major indexes to new highs.
The Standard & Poor’s 500
index, Dow Jones industrial average
and Russell 2000 index of smaller-
company stocks each set records as
the market posted its third straight day
of gains.
Energy companies helped lift
the market as crude oil prices rose.
High-dividend stocks like real estate
companies and utilities also posted big
gains following a drop in bond yields.
The lower yields and a weak forecast
from JPMorgan Chase weighed on
banks. Financial stocks were the only
sector in the S&P 500 to end lower.
Investors brushed off a report
showing U.S. retail sales declined in
June and drew encouragement from
data indicating industrial production
rebounded last month. Traders also
welcomed a report showing inflation
at the consumer level was flat in
June, which suggests that the Federal
Reserve may have more reason to
delay another interest rate increase.
“The low inflation data will put the
Fed more in a wait-and-see mode to
really determine if the low inflationary
environment is really transitory,” said
Lindsey Bell, investment strategist at
CFRA Research.
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