Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who in 2016 met with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower, was charged on Tuesday in a separate case that showed her close ties to the Kremlin.

Veselnitskaya, a pivotal figure in the investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election, was charged by federal prosecutors in New York with seeking to thwart an earlier Justice Department investigation into money laundering that involved an influential Russian businessman and his investment firm.

The money-laundering case was not directly related to the Trump Tower meeting. But a federal indictment returned in Manhattan seemed to confirm that Veselnitskaya had deep ties to senior Russian government officials and rekindled questions about whether the Kremlin tried to use her as an intermediary to Donald Trump’s campaign.

The charges stem from the Justice Department’s 2013 civil investigation into the role that some of Veselnitskaya’s clients — Prevezon Holdings Ltd. and its owner, Denis P. Katsyv — played in a scheme to launder ill-gotten money through New York real estate purchases.

The Justice Department asked the Russian government to assist its investigation, but the Russians refused, responding with a letter that purported to exonerate Russian officials and Prevezon, the indictment said.

The indictment says Veselnitskaya secretly cooperated with a senior Russian prosecutor in drafting the “intentionally misleading” response, then filed it in federal court in Manhattan.

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“In doing so, Veselnitskaya obstructed the civil proceeding,” the indictment said. She is charged with one count of obstruction of justice.

Veselnitskaya, 43, is believed to be in Russia, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which moved to unseal the indictment on Tuesday. The office gave no indication that it expected her to be sent to Manhattan to face charges. She declined a request for an interview.

The new indictment again raises questions about whom Veselnitskaya was representing when she met with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and others at Trump Tower in Manhattan.

That meeting is one focus of the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the election. It was organized after an intermediary promised that Veselnitskaya would deliver documents that would incriminate Hillary Clinton.

Last April, Veselnitskaya acknowledged in an interview with NBC News that she was not merely a private lawyer, but a source of information for the Russian prosecutor general, Yuri Y. Chaika. Now in Manhattan, prosecutors say she collaborated clandestinely with that office to write an official letter that benefited Prevezon.

For years, Veselnitskaya has been regarded as a trusted insider and go-to lawyer for the Moscow regional government.

In the fraud case, filed in 2013, the prosecutors in the Southern District accused Prevezon and other defendants of using real estate purchases in New York to launder a small portion of the profits of an elaborate $230 million (U.S.) Russian tax fraud scheme. The lawsuit was settled last May on the eve of trial for about $6 million, with Prevezon admitting no fault.

The broader Russian scheme had been uncovered by Sergei L. Magnitsky, the Russian tax lawyer who was imprisoned after exposing the scheme and died in a Moscow jail.

Veselnitskaya has maintained that she was acting in a private capacity when she visited Trump Tower in June 2016, just after Trump clinched the Republican nomination.

Her claim has been undercut by revelations that the meeting was organized because campaign officials had been told she could deliver damaging information about Clinton from the Russian government.

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In addition, her memo on talking points for the meeting closely matched a memo Chaika’s office had prepared for a U.S. congresswoman, incorporating some passages verbatim.

The indictment unsealed on Tuesday further undermines her story, detailing how a year before the Trump Tower get-together, the U.S. authorities say, she worked hand in glove with Russian officials to derail the money-laundering case.

Robert Mueller, the special counsel, has been investigating the Trump Tower meeting as part of the inquiry into whether the Trump campaign co-ordinated with Russia’s covert operation to sway the presidential race.

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