By now we all know about the meeting between Natalia Veselnitskaya, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and a small cast of other characters including an ex-Soviet intelligence officer. It’s widely agreed that at the very least, the meeting — ostensibly about lifting sanctions on the adoption of Russian children by Americans, though also purportedly about getting dirt on Hillary Clinton — looked bad. At worst, some are saying it could have been treason. Veselnitskaya has a different term for the whole mess: “mass hysteria.” And she’s ready to testify to Congress about it,
“I’m ready to clarify the situation behind this mass hysteria — but only through lawyers or testifying in the Senate,” Veselnitskaya said in a Tuesday interview with Russia’s state news channel, RT TV.
If she does testify before the Senate, she might not be alone. Just yesterday Special Council Robert Mueller said that both Don Jr. and Manafort can publicly testify, a development relayed to CNN by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. That came after the last week’s reports that the Senate Intelligence Committee could interview Don Jr. about the infamous meeting. He’s hired attorney Alan Futerfas for counsel during his participation in the probe. Meanwhile, Jared Kushner is also trying to make sure he’s covered by updating his disclosure forms with the U.S. government to include over a 100 names missing from the previous document he filed to get security clearance.
Veselnitskaya isn’t the only Russian tired of U.S. interest in election interference. The Kremlin is also getting touchy, especially about the luxurious “spy nests” that Obama evicted Russian diplomatics from before the Russia probe even kicked off, based on evidence that Russia had tried to interfere in the U.S. election. Russia is now saying President Trump needs to give the compounds back, or else. But the Senate is unlikely to let the compounds, or the Russia probe itself, go so easily. Nor will Steven Colbert, who has a whole week of Russia-related programing planned for his show. Veselnitskaya and friends should get used to hearing their names in the news.
(Via: Reuters)