Lawyer: Russian developer's staffer attended Trump Tower meeting
CBS News has confirmed that Ike Kaveladze was in a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin.
New York-based lawyer Scott Balber said Kaveladze -- a Soviet-born businessman who came to the U.S. in 1991 -- doesn't remember saying a single word, CBS News justice and homeland security correspondent Jeff Pegues reports. He left "scratching his head," and wondering, "why am I here?"
Balber confirmed that Kaveladze was asked to attend the meeting by Aras Agalarov to serve as a translator for Veselnitskaya, but that when he arrived, he learned that she already had an interpreter. Balber said that his client then sat in the meeting, which lasted less than 30 minutes, with no purpose.
Agalarov is a Russian billionaire oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kaveladze was Agalarov's man in the Trump Tower meeting, Pegues reports.
Balber said this was Kaveladze's first and only meeting with any senior Trump campaign officials. Balber said that he has no reason to believe that his client had contact with any other Trump campaign officials. He added that Kaveladze is not aware of any follow-up meetings to the June 2016 meeting.
Balber also said that he was contacted on Saturday by special counsel Robert Mueller's office. Investigators are interested in meeting with Kaveladze. He said that his client fully intends to cooperate with that investigation.
Balber also disputed intermediary Rob Goldstone's characterization of the information he had for the president's son.
Last week, Trump Jr. released emails showing the meeting being arranged, and that Kaveladze was promised allegedly damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Instead, he has said, the Russians really wanted to talk about reversing sanctions imposed by the Obama Administration.
The emails released by Trump Jr. indicated that Agalarov wanted to relay the negative information about Clinton from the Russian government. Balber said that the Agalarovs helped set up the meeting as a favor to Veselnitskaya, whom they knew through real estate deals.
Balber said that his client did not know what the meeting was going to be about, nor had he ever met Veselnitskaya. Shortly before the meeting, Balber said, Kaveladze learned that Veselnitskaya was going to talk about the Magnitsky Act.
Kaveladze's name has surfaced before. In 2000, a government report said a businessman later identified as Kaveladze had set up hundreds of accounts for russian brokers in two U.S. banks. The report said the accounts were used to possibly launder over $1 billion dollars from Russian and Eastern European companies, Pegues reports.
Kaveladze, who was born in the former Soviet Union, is in his mid-50s. He is employed by the Crocus Group, which is owned by the Agalarovs, where he has a financial role that includes various advisory work.
CBS News' Katie Ross Dominick contributed to this report.
