The Russian lawyer and suspected Kremlin agent who met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort at Trump Tower in 2016 where she offered dirt on former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been charged in a possibly unrelated case.
Natalia Veselnitskaya has been charged with obstruction of justice in relation to a money laundering investigation involving Russian business.
Ms. Veselnitskaya was charged by federal prosecutors in New York with seeking to thwart a Justice Department civil fraud investigation into money laundering that involved an influential Russian businessman and his investment firm. [...]
The indictment charges that after the Justice Department asked the Russian government to assist its investigation, the Russian government refused, responding with a letter that purported to exonerate Russian officials and the firm’s personnel.
The indictment says Ms. Veselnitskaya had secretly cooperated with a senior Russian prosecutor in drafting the Russian response, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan. “In doing so, Veselnitskaya obstructed the civil proceeding,” the indictment charged.
At first glance this does not appear to be directly related to her meeting with Team Trump at Trump Tower, however it's also true that other people in Trump's orbit have been charged with tangentially related crimes in exchange for cooperation.
Could that be the case here? Will she be offered a deal in the same manner that Maria Butina was?
It may be significant that Veselnitskaya has been charged in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan; the same office that's handling Trump's former henchman Michael Cohen.