Judge denies Russian lawyer from Trump Tower meeting’s request to return to US: report

A U.S. judge reportedly denied a request from Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer at the center of a now-famous Trump Tower meeting, to obtain temporary immigration status so she can defend a claim against Prevezon Holdings Ltd. in the U.S.

U.S. District Judge William Pauley said the immigration status of Veselnitskaya was “squarely within the purview of the executive branch,” according to Reuters.

{mosads}The development comes after Reuters first reported earlier this week that Veselnitskaya was looking to re-enter the country.

Veselnitskaya became a major character in the ongoing probes into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia after Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, accepted a meeting with her after he was told he would receive damaging information on then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

However, Trump Jr. said his meeting with Veselnitskaya produced no information useful to the Trump campaign and called it a “waste of time.”

Prevezon, which is a Russian-controlled company, had originally asked the court for temporary immigration status for Veselnitskaya so she could be present for hearings on a dispute involving a $230 million Russian tax fraud case. 

The company had agreed in May to make a payment of roughly $6 million to the U.S. government in order to settle the case. 

U.S. prosecutors said on Monday the payment was due on Oct. 31, however, New York-based lawyers for Prevezon disputed this.