‘They Wanted It So Badly’: Russian Lawyer Who Met With Trump Jr. Says Campaign Was ‘Longing’ for Clinton Info

‘It Is Quite Possible That Maybe They Were Longing for Such an Information’

The Russian attorney linked to the Kremlin who met with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort last year in June says they were “longing” for damaging information on Hillary Clinton at a critical turning point for the Trump campaign. 

Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian attorney, told NBC News, “I never had any damaging or sensitive information about Hillary Clinton. It was never my intention to have that.” She claims she’s unsure of why they expected her to provide them that information.

Asked why the top Trump campaign operatives would think she would, Veselnitskaya responded, “It is quite possible that maybe they were longing for such an information. They wanted it so badly that they could only hear the thought that they wanted.”

Natalia Veselnitskaya met with the three Trump campaign operatives on June 9, the very same day Trump first tweeted about the 33,000 emails Hillary Clinton “deleted.” 18 days later, Trump would say, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”

But Monday night The New York Times, in yet another bombshell report, offered a very different answer as to why they would think she had damaging information on Clinton.

“Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email.”

The email “was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting,” and “indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information.” 

To be clear, according to the New York Times, Donald Trump Jr. was fully aware that the information on Hillary Clinton he was expecting to receive “was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy.” Rep. Adam Schiff,t he Ranking Member on the House Intelligence Committee, says the meeting is “a potential form of collusion.”

Veselnitskaya also tells NBC News that she is not tied to the Russian government. That claim has been disputed. American financier William F. Browder, tells The New York Times she is “a tool of the Russian government.”