WASHINGTON – A Russian lawyer who promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign was charged with obstruction in an unrelated money laundering investigation, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

The criminal case against Natalya Veselnitskaya, who met at Trump Tower in 2016 with Donald Trump Jr., Trump presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort and others, was brought by federal prosecutors in New York – not Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, who leads the inquiry into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. The charges unsealed Tuesday are not related to Mueller's investigation.

The indictment charges that Veselnitskaya sought to protect her legal client, a Russian investment firm run by well-connected businessman Denis Katsyv by submitting a false declaration to a New York federal judge. The declaration, according to court documents, did not disclose that she secretly helped draft a related investigative report with a Russian prosecutor aimed at clearing Katsyv's firm, Prevezon Holdings.

The case underscores Veselnitskaya's close ties to the Russian government.

"Fabricating evidence – submitting false and deceptive declarations to a federal judge – in an attempt to affect the outcome of pending litigation not only undermined the integrity of the judicial process, but it threatens the ability of our courts and our government to ensure that justice is done," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.

Veselnitskaya, 43, who may be in Russia, could not immediately be reached. She told The Wall Street Journal she was on vacation and had not read the indictment.

Obstruction of justice carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. There was no immediate indication that federal investigators expect her to appear in federal court to face the indictment. Russia does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

The money laundering case stemmed from a $200 million Russian tax fraud case involving Prevezon. The Department of Justice sought to recover millions of dollars in New York real estate costs allegedly involved in the scheme that ran from 2013 to 2018. The fraud allegations involved stealing corporate identities of three companies and claiming tax refunds for them.

In March 2014, the U.S. government requested bank records from Russia under a mutual legal assistance treaty to show the flow of fraudulent funds. Veselnitskaya is charged with helping draft and write the 14-page reply from Russia to exonerate Prevezon.

Veselnitskaya’s emails to a Russian prosecutor July 31 and Aug. 1, 2014, attached drafts of the document with changes and comments, according to the indictment.

“The Russian response to the United States request stated that the Russian crime alleged in the...complaint did not occur and that the story in the complaint was an attempt by (a CEO) to ‘discredit the law enforcement and judicial authorities of Russia investigating his criminal activities,’” Veselnitskaya said, according to the indictment.

Because of her representations, the U.S. court denied a government motion for partial summary judgment in the case Nov. 30, 2015.

In addition to exonerating the Russian firm, the alleged falsified document cast blame for the fraud on Russian accountant Sergei Magnitsky. U.S. authorities asserted that Magnitsky was responsible for uncovering the massive fraud.

Magnitsky was arrested by Russian authorities in retaliation for reporting the fraud, and he died in prison after he languished without adequate medical attention and was beaten. His death triggered the enactment in 2012 of a U.S. law, known as the Magnitsky Act, that sought to block those responsible for Magnitsky's detention from entering the USA or accessing the American financial system.

Russia retaliated by barring Americans from adopting Russian children.

Trump Jr. initially cited the adoption ban as the subject of the Trump Tower meeting involving Veselnitskaya in 2016.

The Prevezon case was settled before trial last year for roughly $6 million.

The obstruction indictment underscores questions about whom Veselnitskaya represented, both in the money laundering matter and the meeting with Trump campaign representatives.

"I am a lawyer, and I am an informant," she told NBC News last April.

Veselnitskaya said she had communicated with Russia Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika since 2013.

Chaika is part of the office that Veselnitskaya allegedly worked with in an effort to fend off the federal money laundering case.