Special counsel’s team and Eric Schneiderman’s office have reportedly shared evidence in move some see as way to create leverage for Manafort’s cooperation

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is working with the New York attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, on its investigation into Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his financial transactions, Politico reported on Wednesday.

Felix Sater: the enigmatic businessman at the heart of the Trump-Russia inquiry Read more

Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, Politico reported that Mueller’s team, investigating possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia, and Schneiderman’s aides have shared evidence and talked frequently about a potential case in recent weeks.

The Associated Press, meanwhile, reported that a grand jury used by Mueller has heard secret testimony from Rinat Akhmetsin, a Russian American lobbyist who attended a June 2016 meeting with Trump’s eldest son at Trump Tower in Manhattan.

The cooperation between Mueller and Schneiderman “could potentially provide Mueller with additional leverage to get Manafort to cooperate in the larger investigation into Trump’s campaign, as Trump does not have pardon power over state crimes”, Politico reported.

CNN reported on Tuesday that Mueller had issued subpoenas to an attorney who formerly represented Manafort and to a Manafort spokesman.

Manafort’s Virginia apartment was raided by agents with the FBI last month. The longtime political consultant and lobbyist is being investigated for possible money laundering and has been targeted as someone who might testify against former colleagues, two people familiar with Mueller’s work have said.

Politico said no decision had been made on whether to file charges, and quoted one of the sources as saying: “Nothing is imminent.”

Mueller’s team has been looking into Manafort’s lobbying work and financial transactions, including real estate deals in New York. Manafort, who led Republican Trump’s campaign for several months in 2016, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Schneiderman, a Democrat, said in May that Trump’s firing of former FBI director James Comey threatened the integrity of the agency. Trump has called Schneiderman, who brought one of the lawsuits over Trump University that were settled for $25m in 2016, a “lightweight”.

Russia has denied any meddling in the 2016 US election. Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign and has condemned the investigation as witch-hunt.

A person familiar with the work of the grand jury used by Mueller confirmed to the AP that Akhmetshin had appeared before Mueller’s grand jury in recent weeks. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secret proceedings.

The revelation is the clearest indication yet that Mueller and his team of investigators view the meeting, which came weeks after Trump secured the Republican presidential nomination, as a relevant inquiry point in their broader probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The meeting included Donald Trump Jr; the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and Manafort. Emails released by Trump Jr show he took the meeting expecting that he would be receiving damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of what was described to him as a Russian government effort to aid the Trump campaign.

The Financial Times first reported Akhmetshin’s grand jury appearance. Reached by the AP, Akhmetshin declined comment. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, also declined comment on Wednesday night.

Akhmetshin spoke at length about his involvement in the Trump Tower meeting in an interview with the AP last month. A former Soviet military officer who served in a counterintelligence unit, he is also a well-known Washington lobbyist. He has been representing Russian interests trying to undermine the story of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison and is the namesake of a US sanctions law.

Akhmetshin has been reported to have ties to Russian intelligence but he has denied that, calling the allegations a “smear campaign”.

Trump makes policy pledge to senator investigating son's Russia meeting Read more

Mueller and his team first signaled their interest in the Trump Tower meeting last month by contacting an attorney for at least some of the Russians who attended. The meeting was disclosed earlier this year to Congress and first revealed by The New York Times.

Trump Jr first said – in a statement reportedly drafted in part by his father – the purpose of the meeting was to discuss adoption but later acknowledged that he anticipated receiving information that he thought could be damaging to Clinton.

In addition to Akhmetshin, other attendees at the meeting included Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya; music publicist Rob Goldstone, who helped arrange the gathering; and a translator. Ike Kaveladze, who also goes by the name Irakly Kaveladze, also attended. He works for a Russian developer who once partnered with Trump to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow.

An email exchange posted to Twitter by Trump Jr showed him conversing with Goldstone, who wanted him to meet with someone he described as a “Russian government attorney”, who supposedly had dirt on Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump”.

“If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer,” Trump Jr wrote in one email response.