Kremlin denies link to lawyer who met with Trump Jr.
Spokesman says Moscow had not the ‘slightest connection’ with Natalia Veselnitskaya, who offered Trump campaign information on Clinton
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MOSCOW, Russia — The Kremlin on Wednesday insisted it was in no way linked to a meeting between US President Donald Trump’s son and a Russian lawyer at the heart of a political firestorm.
“We have already said that we are absolutely not familiar with this whole story,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“We never had any contact with this lawyer, that is why we are not in the loop and have nothing to say. She doesn’t have even the slightest relation to us.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he is surprised at the controversy.
Speaking at a news conference in Brussels, Lavrov said didn’t he understand why the meeting, which Trump Jr. has acknowledged, was becoming such a large issue. Lavrov asked, “What is the problem here?”
Lavrov referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s earlier comments that the current controversy was the result of someone “trying to contest the election results.”
The Kremlin had on Monday denied links to the lawyer.
The June 2016 meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya has thrust Donald Trump Jr into the center of a growing scandal over whether Trump’s associates colluded with Moscow to tilt the 2016 election in the Republican’s favor.
A string of emails Trump Jr released Tuesday showed he agreed to the meeting after claims from a British music promoter that a senior official in Moscow had offered to pass on dirt on Hillary Clinton and Veselnitskaya was a “Russian government attorney.”
Peskov ridiculed claims that Veselnitskaya was working for the Russian government as “inappropriate and absurd.”
Veselnitskaya herself has also denied she had any damaging information on Hillary Clinton or that she is tied to the Russian authorities.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denounced accusations it meddled in the US election to help get Donald Trump to the White House and Peskov said the allegations resembled a “drawn-out TV series.”
US intelligence agencies have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of approving a hacking and influence campaign to sway the vote.
The Times of Israel Community.