Russian businessman Ike Kaveladze was identified Tuesday as the eighth person who attended a private meeting with Donald Trump Jr. last June despite initial claims only a few campaign associates and a Russian lawyer had met in Manhattan.
Lawyer Scott Balber disclosed the name of his client Tuesday afternoon. Kaveladze is a senior vice president at Crocus Group, the real estate development company Azerbaijani-Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov oversees. Agalarov has employed Kaveladze since 2004, well before the Trump Organization partnered with them on the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.
“The eighth person has been identified by prosecutors and we are cooperating fully with prosecutors as a result of the investigation,” the unnamed person’s attorney, Scott Balber, told CNN.
Balber also said Kaveladze is a long-time U.S. citizen and has “never had any engagement with the Russian government in any capacity.”
Balber is also representing Emin and his father, Aras Agalarov. The former Agalarov is a pop star who has worked with Trump.
Kaveladze has yet to be interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, Balber added.
Publicist Rob Goldstone arranged and attended the meeting between Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, Trump Jr., former campaign manager Paul Manafort and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Last week, media reports discovered Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and translator Anatoli Samachornov were also at the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016.
Goldstone wooed Trump Jr. to take the meeting with the promise of negative information on his father’s then-presidential opponent Hillary Clinton.
While records from the meeting have not emerged, the Trump associates have claimed Veselnitskaya did not present any opposition research on Clinton and pivoted to lobbying for the reversal of the Magnitsky Act.
