Eighth person at Trump Jr.-Russia meeting was California businessman born in former Soviet Union, report says

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer to obtain derogatory information about Hillary Clinton in June 2016 was attended by a California businessman born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze, a 52-year-old businessman from Huntington Beach, was the eighth individual at the controversial meeting, the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau has learned.

Kaveladze was asked to attend the meeting at Trump Tower by Aras Agalarov, the son of a billionaire Azerbaijani real estate developer who once planned to build a hotel in Moscow with Donald Trump, according to Kaveladze’s lawyer, Scott Balber.

Neither the White House nor Trump Jr. previously had revealed Kaveladze’s presence at the meeting, despite repeated public statements about it.

At the meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer purportedly also sent by Agalarov, provided Trump with a memo that she said showed improper donations to the Democratic National Committee, information that she said could be useful against Clinton.

Kaveladze “was asked to attend the meeting purely to make sure it happened,” Balber said. “He literally had no idea what the meeting was about until he showed up right before.”

Kaveladze has been contacted by prosecutors working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, according to Balber, who said his client was “cooperating fully,” with investigators.

Balber said Kaveladze did not recall saying anything at the half-hour meeting on June 9, 2016.

Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting after he was told he would be given information about Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump,” according to emails that Trump Jr. released last week.

President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, also attended, but lost interest when the information shown to them by Veselnitskaya proved uninteresting, Trump Jr. has said in a statement.

Balber said Kaveladze does not understand why the meeting became so controversial.

“He’s absolutely baffled,” Balber said. “Even the Agalarovs are absolutely baffled. Nobody had any expectation this would be what it’s become, especially this poor guy, who had not been involved before.”

Also at the meeting was Rinat Akhmetshin, a Washington lobbyist, who was born in the former Soviet Union, and said he was attending at Veselnitskaya’s request.

After giving Trump Jr. papers purporting to describe illegal donations, Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin shifted the conversation to the Magnitsky Act, the U.S. law that imposes sanctions on Russian businessmen, which both have lobbied against.

Mueller’s office did not immediately return calls seeking comment.