US Senate Views 'I Think Probably' Testimony as Verified Facts - Veselnitskaya

As the transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee's interview with Glenn R. Simpson, whose firm gathered data for the Trump dossier on alleged links with Russia, has been made public, Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who happened to attract global attention due to her meeting with the US President in 2016, discussed the issue with RT.
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The Trump dossier prepared by Glenn Simpson raises lots of questions with regard to sources he based his notes on, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya said.

"Questions arise about the sources of those people whom he talked to, based on whose words, uttered anonymously, and without indicating any names, he wrote these notes," the lawyer said in an interview with RT.

According to her, the inquiry costs taxpayers lots of money and requires vast human resources, which is quite suspicious.

"Why, suddenly, did these unnamed sources, this unchecked information, become the subject of an investigation involving at least 4 or 5 state institutions in the United States," the she wondered.

Veselnitskaya, who has personally known Simpson since 2015, said that the latter has always demonstrated an outstanding ability to gather information and analyze it.

READ MORE: Trump's Lawyers Met With ‘Russia Probe' Team in December — Reports

Commenting on the recently released full transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee's interview she, however, pointed out that his testimony was full of vague wordings and uncertainty. Nevertheless, it didn't prevent the US Senate from drawing conclusions, as if relying on verified facts.

"The thing is, look at how he testifies using words like "probably," "I believe," "I think probably." However, his phrases are viewed as an accomplished fact despite all this," Veselnitsakaya said.

Some media outlets have come out with headlines pointing to the inconsistency between Glenn Simpson's testimony and what Veselnitskaya said. This, in particular, concerned one of the dates of their alleged meeting. While the Russian lawyer claimed that she didn't meet Simpson on that day, the latter stated otherwise.

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Answering the question as to whether the meeting actually took place or not, the Russian lawyer confirmed that she didn't meet with Simpson during that period of time.

"Glenn Simpson, who worked for my client, also worked to collect this anti-Trump information. And now they are circulating this date of my meeting in the hope of revealing something. They think that if we were in the same place on the same day, then we definitely had to discuss it," Veselnitskaya explained.

Although the US Senate listened to testimonies of several people associated with the Trump-Russia investigation, Veselnitskaya was not among them.

"One form of testimony is written answers to questions, documents. After that they decide whether it makes sense to summon a person and start an interrogation. Since I submitted my answers to 174 questions, they have not shown any interest to continue the dialogue with me. What this means, I don't know. But I guess that, generally, they already know all the answers I can give. And they are unfavorable for them," she said.

The Russian lawyer expressed hope that the whole hysteria surrounding Russia's alleged meddling in the US presidential election will soon calm down.

"I don't want to sound naive, but in this case I would like to maintain my confidence that this psychosis will be over at some point, and that common sense will gain the upper hand," Veselnitskaya concluded.

The US is currently investigating Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election and collusion between Trump's campaign team and the Kremlin.

READ MORE: ¡Dios Mio! US Now Accuses Russia of Meddling in Mexican Elections, Too

One of the things that the US authorities view as a possible proof of their allegations is the 2016 meeting, involving Trump's son Donald Trump Jr, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, the campaign manager at that time Paul Manafort and Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya. The talks were allegedly initiated in order to receive confidential information about Trump's rival in the presidential race Hillary Clinton from the Russian lawyer.

However, as Trump Jr. has explained the issue later, the conversation was focused entirely on the adoption of Russian children by US nationals.

Russian officials, as well as US President Donald Trump, have repeatedly denied the allegations of collusion between Moscow and the campaign, calling them absurd.

The report about the meeting was revealed by The New York Times newspaper, in July 2017.

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