The timing of Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with Kremlin-backed attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya falls so neatly into the timeline of other events in the Trump campaign, that it’s hard not to draw connections.
Literally minutes after Trump Jr. ends that meeting, Trump Sr. issues his first tweet challenging Hillary Clinton to produce her “missing emails.” And even before that, on the day that Trump Jr. first agrees to the meeting in which he’s been promised information on Hillary Clinton’s dealings with the Russians, there’s another example of timing that seems way, way too pat.
Three hours later … Mr. Trump promised to deliver a major address detailing Mrs. Clinton’s “corrupt dealings” to give “favorable treatment” to foreign governments, including “the Russians.”
According to the Trump White House, both instances are just examples of coincidental timing. They have to be, because the Trump White House is still maintaining a feeble firewall between Trump Jr.’s meeting and Trump Sr.’s knowledge. Even though Donald Trump was in the building, a floor above his son, son-in-law, and campaign chair as the most senior members of his campaign team met with Veselnitskaya, there’s an absolute insistence that Trump Didn’t Know.
Only that firewall … is already a little leaky.
Also under scrutiny is how forthcoming Mr. Kushner was with his father-in-law about the nature of the June meeting. He met with Mr. Trump to discuss the issue, according to advisers to the White House, around the time he updated his federal disclosure form to include Ms. Veselnitskaya’s name on a list of foreign contacts that Mr. Kushner was required to submit to the F.B.I. to obtain a security clearance.
It’s not just a matter of timing. There are a lot more “coincidences” involved in the meeting.
Some of those coincidences emerge from Natalia Veselnitskaya.Veselnitskaya was in the United States to defend her client, Prevezon Holdings. Prevezon was a real-estate holding firm, operating out of Cyprus, that was accused of money laundering. It had been charged and was being prosecuted by Preet Bharara.
After Donald Trump moved into the White House, he fired Preet Bharara, even though he had earlier told the prosecutor he would keep his position.
Two months later, the Trump Justice Department under Jefferson Sessions abruptly settled the Prevezon Holdings case for half what the government had been expecting to collect.
A major money-laundering case set to go to trial last week in New York was suddenly settled three days earlier, with both the US government and the defendant, the Russian firm Prevezon Holdings, claiming victory.
Then there’s old Kremlin hand, Paul Manafort. Manafort’s entire presence in the Trump campaign is a giant poke in the eye to any sort of credibility. After all, Manafort’s previous job was to expressly unsettle the government of Ukraine, insert Moscow’s hand-chosen candidate as president, and create friction between Ukraine and Nato to provide Russia with an excuse to invade. Manafort delivered on all points.
Following the meeting, the Trump campaign was adamant in demanding that the Republican platform’s position on Ukraine be weakened. It was, in fact, the only issue where the Trump campaign intervened to ask for platform changes.
Veselnitskaya was kind enough to say that she didn’t think that Manafort was paying attention during the meeting. Manafort also insisted that he didn’t know who he was meeting or what the meeting was about. Meeting? What meeting? Because he didn't read he email before miraculously showing up at the meeting. What didn’t he read? Apparently all the parts about how the meeting was to feature high-level information direct from the Russian government concerning Hillary Clinton. There’s only one problem with Manafort’s excuse …
The headline on the email thread, and the title of the item Manafort had to open and read to even come to the meeting was “Russia—Clinton—private and confidential.”
Then there’s the guy who called the meeting to begin with. Following the meeting, Donald Trump Jr. was extremely prickly about any hint that he might have ever had anything to do with Russia, but before tat, he was a lot less reticent.
“Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” Trump’s son, Donald Jr., told a real estate conference in 2008, according to an account posted on the website of eTurboNews, a trade publication. “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
That money was pouring in from organizations like Prevezon and Bayrock, companies created for the express purpose of converting funds from ex-Soviet oligarchs into American real estate, with a hefty bonus to the real estate devs involved. Guys like Kusher, and Trump, and Trump Jr. were exactly those with the biggest desire to see Natalia Veselnitskaya succeed in re-opening the doors to Prevezone and other sources of Russian funds.
The line Ian Fleming hands to one of James Bond’s most famous literary adversaries is certainly catchy, and I’ve used it before. But it certainly seems applicable here.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is Enemy Action."
-- Auric Goldfinger
What doesn’t hundreds of times make? Trump.