Russian lawyer denies government ties, says Trump Jr. seemed 'interested' in DNC dirt
Natalia Veselnitskaya denied any ties to the Kremlin.
— -- The Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. during the presidential campaign denies that she was a government attorney and says she spoke primarily with the president’s son.
“I'm certainly flattered by being called as a government attorney,” Natalia Veselnitskaya told "NBC Nightly News" Tuesday night. “But I've never worked for the government in the first place.”
She added that Trump Jr. was her main contact at the meeting, saying Jared Kushner left early and that Paul Manafort “was constantly looking at his phone.”
Earlier in the day during a portion of the interview that aired on NBC's "Today," Veselnitskaya said that it seemed Trump Jr. and the others who attended their meeting were eager for information about Democratic National Committee.
The attorney was also asked why Trump Jr. and other members of Donald Trump's presidential campaign though she was going to provide information about the DNC.
“Maybe they had a desire to hear this information. So in what I’d been telling, in that idea, they saw something that interested them,” Veselnitskaya told "Today." She denied that she had connections to the Kremlin and that she was part of any Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
She added that she wasn't aware anyone else besides Donald Trump Jr. would be joining the June 9, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower in New York. Donald Trump Sr.'s then–campaign adviser and son-in-law, Kushner, and then–campaign chairman, Manafort, were also in attendance.
"I didn’t know who will be attending this meeting [before it took place]. I only knew that Donald Trump Jr. was willing to meet with me," Veselnitskaya said. Kushner, she said, "left the meeting after about seven to 10 minutes." Manafort was "looking at his phone all the time" during the meeting, "reading something."
Speaking to reporters in Russia Tuesday, Veselnitskaya maintained she didn’t have information on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and did not intend for the conversation to be about the campaign.
“It was a private meeting not connected to the fact that [Trump Jr.] is the son of the future or current [presidential] candidate,” Veselnitskaya said, later adding, “I’m not interested in politics.”
When details of the meeting were first reported by The New York Times over the weekend, Trump Jr. said in a statement that he agreed to meet with Veselnitskaya because she "had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton."
He added in his statement Sunday, "No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information."
First reported by the Times report Monday evening and confirmed by emails released by Trump Jr. Tuesday, the president’s son was informed in an email that the damaging information on Clinton he would supposedly receive from Veselnitskaya was part of the Russian government's effort to support his father's bid for the presidency.
Veselnitskaya is best known for her work against the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law that blocks certain Russian officials' entrance to the U.S. and their use of the U.S. banking system.
ABC News' John Santucci contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: ABC News has updated this story to correct the original translation provided.
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