The count of people who attended the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya keeps going up. No sooner did we learn that Russian-American lobbyist and reputed former spy Rinat Akhmetshin was on hand, than rumors emerged of yet another person in the room. As it turns out, that other person … may be two people.
The June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort included at least eight people.
At least. Donald Trump Jr has made a point of saying that he has a “small office” a floor below his father’s. But he clearly has a different idea of “small” than the average American. Eight people? This wasn’t a meeting, this was a Trump-sponsored event.
So far acknowledged in attendance: Trump Jr., Kushner, Manafort, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin and publicist Rob Goldstone, who helped set up the meeting. A source familiar with the circumstances told CNN there were at least two other people in the room as well, a translator and a representative of the Russian family who had asked Goldstone to set up the meeting.
Is that all? With Trump Jr, Kushner, and Manafort already in the room, there really weren’t all that many Trump people missing. Reince Priebus was known to be in Trump Tower that day. So were some of the big donors to Trump’s campaign. Were any of them in the room? Were they invited down after Veselnitskaya handed over a folder of DNC emails? Or maybe after Trump Jr made his reply offer.
How long before someone mentions that Donald Trump was actually there for at least some of the meeting. And just how many people does it take to make a conspiracy anyway?