Russian lawyer refutes Trump’s son’s Clinton claims

Washington, July 11 (IANS) The Russian lawyer at the centre of allegations surrounding US President Donald Trump's eldest son has insisted she was never in possession of information that could have damaged Hillary Clinton, media reports said on Tuesday.

Natalia Veselnitskaya, who has been linked to the Russian government, said Donald Trump Jr. and two senior campaign aides may have met her last summer because they were "longing" for such information, the BBC reported.

"It is quite possible that maybe they were longing for such information. They wanted it so badly that they could only hear the thought that they wanted," Veselnitskaya told NBC in an interview.

"I never had any damaging or sensitive information about Hillary Clinton. It was never my intention to have that," she said.

She said the meeting was set up by a man she did not know who told her by telephone to go to Trump Tower, adding that Donald Trump Jr. asked her just one question during the meeting.

"The question that I was asked was as follows: Whether I had any financial records which might prove that the funds used to sponsor the DNC (Democratic National Committe) were coming from inappropriate sources," Veselnitskaya said.

She denied ever having worked for the Russian government.

In a tweet sent after Veselnitskaya's interview, Donald Trump Jr accused the media and Democratic Party of focusing on a "nonsense meeting" and of "desperation".

According to a report by The New York Times, Donald Trump Jr. was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign and was informed that the material was part of Kremlin's effort to aid his father's candidacy.