2016 ELECTION/HILLARY CLINTON/LEGAL/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A Russian lawyer who promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign was charged with obstruction in an unrelated money laundering investigation, federal prosecutors said Tuesday [1-8-19]. The criminal case against Natalya Veselnitskaya, who met at Trump Tower in 2016 with Donald Trump Jr., Trump presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort and others, was brought by federal prosecutors in New York – not Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, who leads the inquiry into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The charges unsealed Tuesday are not related to Mueller’s investigation. The indictment charges that Veselnitskaya sought to protect her legal client, a Russian investment firm run by well-connected businessman Denis Katsyv by submitting a false declaration to a New York federal judge. The declaration, according to court documents, did not disclose that she secretly helped draft a related investigative report with a Russian prosecutor aimed at clearing Katsyv’s firm, Prevezon Holdings. The case underscores Veselnitskaya’s close ties to the Russian government.”
–Kevin Johnson, Bart Jansen and Kevin McCoy, “Russian lawyer in Trump Tower meeting charged with obstruction in unrelated case,” USA Today, January 8, 2019 5:52 pm