Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who helped organize the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, was charged Tuesday in a separate case for obstruction justice in a money-laundering investigation.
The case was brought against Veselnitskaya by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, not special counsel Robert Mueller, and it’s not related to the Trump Tower meeting. However, Mueller’s team is reportedly scrutinizing that Trump Tower meeting separately.
According to the charging document, Veselnitskaya made a “misleading declaration” to the Manhattan court in a case that was settled in May 2017.
That case was brought against Prevezon Holdings, a Russian-owned group of companies that laundered proceeds of an elaborate $230 million tax fraud scheme. The company’s owner, Denis Katzyv, settled with the U.S. government for $6 million roughly two years ago, days before the three-year case was set to go to trial.
Veselnitskaya helped to represent Prevezon in the civil case.
The indictment against Veselnitskaya said she “obstructed the civil proceeding” by secretly cooperating with a senior Russian prosecutor in drafting what was supposed to be an “independent” investigation by the Russian government into Prevezon.
Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr. and others at Trump Tower in Manhattan on June 9, 2016, after it was believed she had dirt on Hillary Clinton.
