Russia lawyer: Trump Jr. suggested sanctions law could be re-examined if Trump won

A Russian lawyer who met with members of President Trump’s campaign said Donald Trump Jr. assured her that if his father won the 2016 election, his administration would look into reversing an anti-Russia law, Bloomberg reported Monday. 

Natalia Veselnitskaya said she went to New York City in June 2016 to inform Trump campaign officials that certain Democratic donors had evaded taxes and to lobby against the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law sanctioning Russia in response to the death of a whistleblower in a Moscow prison.

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She recalled Trump Jr. saying, “if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it. I understand our side may have messed up, but it’ll take a long time to get to the bottom of it,” Bloomberg reported.

Trump Jr. agreed to meet with Veselnitskaya after a British publicist told him the attorney had dirt on Hillary Clinton, President Trump’s opponent during the election.

Trump Jr. has previously downplayed the meeting and called it a “waste of time.”

The meeting has come under intense scrutiny as a number of investigations are looking into the extent of possible Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election.

Special counsel Robert Mueller last week delivered his first charges in his probe into the matter, indicting former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and one of his former associates.

It was also revealed that George Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his ties with Russian officials.

Manafort is also reported to have attended the meeting with Vaselnitskaya along with White House adviser and President Trump son-in-law, Jared Kushner.