A California businessman born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia is the eighth-revealed person who attended Donald Trump Jr.’s now-infamous meeting with a Russian lawyer in June 2016, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Citing “two people familiar with the meeting,” the Times reported that Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze, who is from Huntington Beach, sat in on the meeting that Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano feels warrants a criminal investigation.
Aras Agalarov, the son of an Azerbaijani real estate developer who once planned to build a hotel in Moscow with Donald Trump, invited Kaveladze to the meeting, per to the Times. Kaveladze’s LinkedIn profile lists him as vice president at Crocus International, a division of the real estate development company run by Agalarov.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort joined the president’s oldest son for the meeting that Trump Jr. agreed to attend when he was promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Kaveladze’s lawyer, Scott Balber, told the Times that his client “was asked to attend the meeting purely to … make sure it happened. He said that Kaveladze has cooperated with prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russia’s attempt to meddle in the election.
“He literally had no idea what the meeting was about until he showed up right before,” Balber said.
The 52-year-old Kaveladze does not recall saying anything during the meeting and doesn’t understand why it has become such a big deal, his lawyer told the Times.
“He’s absolutely baffled,” Balber told the Times. “Nobody had any expectation this would be what it’s become, especially this poor guy, who had not been involved before.”
Kaveladze holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from the Moscow Academy of Finance in Russia and a Master of Business Administration from the University of New Haven in Connecticut, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Rinat Akhmetshin, a Washington lobbyist born in the former Soviet Union, was also at the meeting in addition to Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer reportedly also sent by Agalarov.
Trump Jr. tweeted out emails last week that detail entertainment publicist Rob Goldstone setting up the meeting.