Federal judge refuses order allowing Russian lawyer back in U.S.

A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday refused to order the government to let the Russian lawyer who held a controversial meeting with Donald Trump Jr. back into the U.S. to participate in a hearing on a settlement involving a massive tax fraud.

Prevezon Holdings Ltd., which settled a money laundering case stemming from the tax fraud for $5.9 million earlier this year, wanted permission for lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya to attend a hearing next week on disputes over enforcement of the settlement.

U.S. District Judge William Pauley — apparently referencing Veselnitskaya’s role in the meeting in which Trump Jr. was promised compromising information on Hillary Clinton and in lobbying for the lifting of Russian sanctions imposed after a lawyer probing the tax fraud died in custody — said he wouldn’t second-guess the government.

The Prevezon case involved the purchase of real estate in New York, but Pauley said, “In view of recent revelations regarding Russia’s outsized influence, there may have been more to this money laundering case than a few luxury condominiums at 20 Pine St.”