Browder’s story has never been examined by any US law enforcement authority. Otherwise both him and the people he worked for in Russia would have been doing their ten-year term somewhere in a private GEO Group prison, at best. Browder’s story about police raids, seizures, embezzlement of 230 mln from the treasury, and murder of an investigative lawyer is stunning, “knocking down”, and it has never occurred to anyone to question it, especially when everybody was from the very beginning willing to hear heinous stories about Russia. Those lies have expanded far beyond international borders, it has devoured mental connections between people. Those who ever dared to challenge the story are labeled as enemies and traitors, without charge or trial. That is the very outcome of the Magnitsky Act, passed similarly, without any charge or trial, defying any and all principles of law, evidence and the presumption of innocence.
The meeting with Mr. Rohrabacher in April 2016, which has never been a top secret information, has today made the headlines of all the US media as a meeting “that sheds additional light on the extent to which Moscow-based political operatives sought to influence American officials in the run-up to last year’s presidential election” (a phrase from your article). However, it can’t throw any more light, for neither this meeting, nor the meeting with Donald Trump Jr., nor with anybody else in the US had nothing to do with the elections.
The meeting with Mr. Rohrabacher which took place in April 2016 wasn’t planned, and I’m sure he didn’t know my name, because my presence at the meeting was rather by chance. I only requested to turn to the review of Magnitsky’s case and watch a documentary film by Andrey Nekrasov, who had neither political, nor financial interest to show what coincided with the results of my private investigation as a lawyer, and what coincided with the investigation by the Russian authorities. I don’t know who Rohrabacher received Andrey Nekrasov’s film from. But what I do know is that an aide of one of the Congressmen, Kyle Parker, who has been working with Browder for over 7 years, circulated Browder’s memos and presentations to all the members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs right before the scheduled screening of the film in the Committee, claiming the film was untruthful, trying to ban the screening in the Congress. Still, the film was screened on June 13, 2016 in the Newseum, and it was presented by an American investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh, as an example of speech exposed to harshest possible censorship and discrimination. Neither at this meeting, nor at any other time had either me, or anybody I know ever discussed elections, US presidential candidates, or any compromising information about any US politicians. I have never sought to call off the sanctions, because they have never been imposed to my client, and they are incapable by themselves, and have never been applied in the United States so far. All my discussions about the Magnitsky Act solely related to the fact that in 2012, under the pretext of normalizing trade relations with Russia, at the instigation of individuals who had an axe to grind an act was passed which described a false story used to incite hatred between our countries, to break social and mental relations, up to the adoption ban, manipulation of the public opinion and politicians. Magnitsky has never been a lawyer, he had never done any investigation and never filed any claims alleging someone had stolen USD 230 mln from the Russian treasury; he was not beaten, and he did not die from tortures or beating, including for allegedly abandoning his claims. A criminal case on the embezzlement of funds from the Russian treasury was not launched based on the claim by Magnitsky or anybody else from Browder’s staff, and was investigated by Russian law enforcement agencies even before Magnitsky’s arrest. Magnitsky had never been persecuted under any case, except in 2001 under the case of complicity with Browder in tax crimes with sham employment of uneducated people with disabilities as financial analysts for the Hermitage Fund. And if Browder, who went into hiding from investigation and trial since 2008, would have really intended to get Magnitsky released from custody, he would just have to pay the outstanding taxes in the amount of approximately US$18 mln, and the case would have been discontinued. But Browder chose a different tactics: he hired an American lobbying company at least in May 2008, and went to the Congress to prepare the ground for his immunity and for an attack on the entire Russian system. But when Magnitsky who had already prepared for the trial died in the pretrial detention center – Browder and all those behind him who kept silent about him until that time, got a unique opportunity to use the death of their staff member to create an image of a victim and all-consuming corruption in Russia in case if anyone in the United States would think of launching an investigation of real facts and their illegal actions and possible crimes against the people of the United States. I named them before and I call them out now: William Browder, who renounced his US citizenship in 1998 due to his unwillingness to pay taxes in the United States, and unidentified persons from US corporation ZIFF Brothers, who received about USD 1 bln in 2007 from Browder’s criminal and other unlawful activities in the territory of the Russian Federation. I was willing to share this same information, including all the details and documents, any politician or journalist in the United States, including Mrs. Clinton, as I have always said, including in the interview posted in the Internet in Russian, but completely misrepresented today by the US media. Just like before, and even more so now, I believe it is my duty to convey this information to politicians, prosecutors and people of the United States, because the level of hatred and slander against me and all the people who ever met with me became extraordinary.
Lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya
P.S.
Natalya Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who found herself in the epicenter of a “spy scandal” that broke out in the US media after her meeting with Donald Trump Jr. During an exclusive interview with the head of the News Front agency Konstantin Knyrik, she revealed the details on the staying in the US, Magnitsky Act, the “spy” scandal, the statement of William Browder, the lie that was invented after the death of Magnitsky and many other things.