Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer caught up in the controversy over her meeting with Donald Trump Jr. last year
denies that she’s worked for the Russian government.
In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show she said that Trump Jr. and others at the meeting wanted damaging information
about Hillary Clinton “so badly.”
Veselnitskaya was asked specifically how the Trump aides that attended the meeting
including President Donald Trump’s son-in- law and adviser, Jared Kushner, and then-
campaign chairman, Paul Manafort had gotten the impression that she had potentially damaging information about
Hillary Clinton.
“It’s quite possible that maybe they were looking for such information, they wanted it so badly,”
Veselnitskaya said through a
translator. She described the meeting in some detail, saying she “never knew” who else would attend the meeting, but was met by Trump Jr.and Manafort.
She continued to say,
“all I knew was that Mr. Donald Trump Jr. was willing to meet with me. I could recognize the young gentleman who was only present in the meeting
for only the first seven to 10 minutes.
And then, he stood up and left the
room. It was Mr. Jared Kushner. And he never came back, by the way. The other individual who was at the same meeting, was always looking at his
phone. He was reading something. He never took any active part in the information. That was Mr. Manafort.”
She was also asked point blank if she had ever worked for the Russian government
and she said ‘NO’.
