The June 9 meeting has become the focus of allegations that the Trump election campaign collaborated last year with a covert effort by Moscow to turn voters away from Clinton. Several US media described Akhmetshin as former Soviet counterintelligence officer who is suspected by some US officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence.īut the lobbyist rejected that allegation as 'maliciously false,' saying he 'never worked for any intelligence service.' It emerged on Friday that Rinat Akhmetshin, a Washington lobbyist with dual citizenship, accompanied Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya to the June 2016 meeting, at which Trump Jr expected to receive secret information that would hurt Clinton in the 2016 election. This file photo taken on Jshows Donald Trump Jr addressing delegates on the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.Ī Russian-American lobbyist reported to have attended a meeting by Donald Trump Jr seeking damaging information on Hillary Clinton strongly denied working for Russian intelligence on Friday.

The lobbyist identified as a spy rejects that allegation as 'maliciously false,' saying he 'never worked for any intelligence service.' US media reports said Donald Trump Jr's meeting with a Russian lawyer was also attended by a former Russian spy.

Natalia veselnitskaya spy agent