The FBI has obtained secret wiretaps collected by Spanish police of conversations involving Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, the contents of which should make Donald Trump Jr. “very concerned,” a top Spanish prosecutor said Friday.
Torshin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has close ties with some U.S. lawmakers and the National Rifle Association that helped him get a meeting with Trump Jr. during the gun lobby’s annual convention in May 2016.
Jose Grinda, the Spanish prosecutor, told Yahoo News that FBI officials in recent months requested and received wiretapped conversations between Torshin and Alexander Romanov, a convicted Russian money launderer.
“Just a few months ago, the wiretaps of these telephone conversations were given to the FBI,” Grinda said said in response to a question from Yahoo News during a talk he gave at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. Grinda did not say why the FBI sought the wiretapped conversation.
Asked if he was concerned about Torshin’s meetings with Donald Trump Jr. and other American political figures, Grinda said: “Mr. Trump’s son should be concerned.”
Torshin may be a subject of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and whether Moscow conspired with the Trump campaign. He was sanctioned in April by the U.S. along with other Russian oligarchs and political figures for their “ongoing and increasingly brazen malign” activity.
Torshin regularly attends NRA conventions, is a member of the group, and has hosted members of the group in Russia, Yahoo News reported. He sought to set up a meeting between Putin and then-candidate Donald Trump during the campaign. But a meeting never happened.
Torshin met briefly with the Trump Jr. at a private dinner in Louisville, Ky., during the May 2016 NRA annual convention.
Later, in February 2017, Torshin appeared as part of the Russian delegation at the National Prayer Breakfast in D.C., where he was scheduled to meet with President Trump. The National Security Council was concerned and canceled the meeting.
Torshin is connected to Spain because the police there tried to arrest him in August 2013, when he was expected to fly to the Spanish island of Mallorca in August for the birthday party of Romanov, the convicted Russian money launderer.
The police planned to arrest Torshin as part of Grina’s probe into Russian organized crime and money laundering. Torshin never showed up for the party and wasn’t arrested.
