Natalia Veselnitskaya’s Talking Points for Trump Tower – June 9, 2016
(Full Text of Veselnitskaya’s Talking Points)
The information that Veselnitskaya gave to U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) when he was visiting Moscow in April 2016 – pages 6-7 of the attached document – provide a good summary of Veselnitskaya’s talking points.
Analysis
Veselnitskaya’s talking points appear to argue for repealing the Magnitsky Act by discrediting William Browder and Sergei Magnitsky and using the manipulative angle of wanting to help Russian orphans (American adoption of whom Putin banned in retaliation for the U.S passage of the Magnitsky Act). Veselnitskaya attempts to stir hostility toward Browder by raising the claim that Browder defrauded both the U.S. and Russian government out of millions of dollars in taxes.
To make her talking point about Browder seem relevant to the Trump Campaign, Veselnitskaya points out that the New York billionaire Ziff brothers – major Democratic donors – had invested with Browder, and that if they donated to the Clinton Campaign, their donations would be tainted and possibly illegal.
Whatever the factual basis for Veselnitskaya’s claims, it is clear that she is using the information in a distorted and slanted way to push repeal of the Magnitsky Act – a U.S. law that has frozen the U.S. assets of many wealthy Russians, including Vladmir Putin. As a Russian citizen, Veselnitskaya would certainly gain favor with Putin if her efforts were successful.
I personally believe that the truth of the Magnitsky story is somewhere between Browder’s account and Veselnitskaya’s.
– rob rünt
Read more of this special series:
The Trump-Russia Web
- Part 1: Introduction
- Part 2: What’s What (Glossary)
- Part 3: Who’s Who (Glossary)
- Part 4: Timeline, Key Relationships, Key Places
- Part 5: High-Level Summaries
- Part 6: William Browder
- Part 7: Natalia Veselnitskaya
- Part 8: The Steele Dossier
- Part 9: Fusion GPS
- Part 10: Glenn Simpson and the Prevezon Case
- Part 11: Glenn Simpson and the Trump Investigation
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