Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya speaks to journalists in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, July 11, 2017. Veselnitskaya admits she met with Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 presidential campaign, but insists that she had no compromising information on Hillary Clinton to offer in contrast to what the email exchange released by Trump’s eldest son suggested. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Today the Northeastern headquarters of the #Resistance, that would be the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, issued an indictment of Russian lawyer, Natalia V. Veselnitskaya. While Veselnitskaya is most familiar as the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man of the Russia-collusion conspiracy theory, this indictment has nothing to do with anyone named Trump. It stems from her representation of a Russian “businessman” and his company, Prevezon Holdings, for laundering money via purchases of New York real estate. The fact that this indictment was issued with some fanfare, given the fact that Veselnitskaya in Russia and is unable to enter the United States and no one cares about Prevezon, gives the whole thing a stench of trying to pump new life into a bullsh** investigation that has gone on way, way too long.

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. Ms. 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 Ms. Veselnitskaya had deep ties to senior Russian government officials. The charges stem from the Justice Department’s 2013 civil investigation into the role that some of Ms. 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.

So far all of the coverage has focused on one thing:

The memo that NATALIA VESELNITSKAYA provided at the June 2016 TRUMP TOWER meeting matched one circulated by Russia's top prosecutors ofc. Now, she's been charged with secretly working with that ofc to thwart a civil fraud investigation by @TheJusticeDept. https://t.co/RoEUYFMSxJ — Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) January 8, 2019

US attorney in NY charges Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met in Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr and others promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, in a separate case highlighting her ties to the Russian government. She has been charged with obstruction of justice. — Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 8, 2019

Natalya Veselnitskaya, who attended a 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner, was charged Tuesday with obstruction of justice in an unrelated case. https://t.co/doXnwaxAT1 — The Associated Press (@AP) January 8, 2019

Breaking: Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who in 2016 met with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower, has been charged by federal prosecutors in a separate case that showed her close ties to the Kremlin, NYT reports. https://t.co/rmPsVPVeyd — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 8, 2019

NEW: Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya—known for her 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort—has been charged with obstruction of justice in money-laundering case https://t.co/hoDX4VzwA2 — The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 8, 2019

But, there are a lot of other moving parts here that the media are collectively, and consciously, blocking out. Aside from the strangeness of announcing the indictment of someone who is not in US custody and thereby ensuring she will never, ever, be apprehended, there is the media’s universal refusal to acknowledge that during the Trump Tower meeting, Veselnitskaya was a stringer for FusionGPS, the company hired by the Clinton campaign to scrounge up oppo on Trump.

Despite all the attention paid to her, she seems to be a bit player in the whole drama. For instance, we know what Veselnitskaya talked about at the Trump Tower meeting. She was trying to have Magnitsky Act sanctions placed on oligarch Oleg Deripaska removed. The left has had a smallish herd of cattle over Veselnitskaya allegedly offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. I’ve always failed to grasp why this is important or meaningful. Why would any campaign turn down derogatory information on their opponent? And it isn’t like using a foreign national to obtain it is a big deal. The Clinton campaign, after all, hired an appendage of British intelligence to develop the Steele, or Trump, Dossier, which he did by paying off Russian intermediaries.

Some of the other parts that are never discussed are much more interesting:

Veselnitskaya met with FusionGPS honcho Glenn Simpson both before and after the Trump Tower meeting.

Oleg Deripaska acted as an agent of the FBI while under sanctions.

Veselnitskaya was banned from entering the United States but was given special permission to enter the US at the time of the Trump Tower meeting.

Glenn Simpson took the Fifth rather than talk about his involvement with Veselnitskaya.

The obvious conclusion is that the coverage of this indictment, if not the indictment itself, is simply another attempt by the purveyors of the Russia-collusion nonsense to smear yet more lipstick on that particular pig.

This is a link to the indictment.

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