US Lawmaker Requests Details on Trump Jr.’s Meeting With Russian Lawyer

Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee, asked the US Secret Service on Monday to provide details about vetting procedures for a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in the Trump Tower in New York City.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Sunday, President Donald Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow stated that Secret Service could have prevented the meeting with the Russian lawyers from taking place if it was nefarious in nature. The Secret Service responded that Trump Jr. was not its protectee at the time and did not screen people who interacted with him.

"In order to obtain a complete and accurate understanding of the Secret Service’s role in vetting individuals at Trump Tower, please provide a briefing on these matters…by July 31, 2017," Cummings said in a letter to US Secret Service Director Randolph Alles.

On Sunday, CNN reported that at least eight people were present at the meeting, including President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, campaign manager Paul Manafort, lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and publicist Rob Goldstone.

Two more people, a translator and a representative of the Russian family who had asked Goldstone to set up the meeting, were not named by CNN’s source.

Earlier this month, US media reported that Donald Trump, Jr. met with Veselnitskaya in June 2016, expecting that she would present sensitive information about Hillary Clinton, but quickly understood she did not have any relevant information, and the parties moved to the problem of the adoption of Russian children by US nationals.

Veselnitskaya, in turn, denied that she had offered any negative information on Clinton.