Lawyer says client attended Trump Jr meeting with Russian attorney

A man who works for a Moscow-based developer with ties to U.S. President Donald Trump was identified on Tuesday as the eighth person to attend a June 2016 meeting where Trump's son hoped to get damaging information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Lawyer Scott Balber confirmed Ike Kaveladze's name to Reuters after CNN reported that his client had been identified by special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors and was cooperating in their investigation.

Kaveladze's LinkedIn profile identifies him as vice president of Crocus Group, a company run by Moscow-based developers Aras Agalarov and his son, Emin, an Azerbaijani-Russian pop star. The two have ties to the Trump family and helped set up the June 2016 meeting between DonaldTrump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Kaveladze was asked to go to the meeting at Trump Tower in New York with the understanding that he would be a translator for Veselnitskaya, only to find she had brought her own translator with her, Balber told CNN.

Balber told the network he also represents the Agalarovs. Balber said Mueller's investigators have not interviewed his client or made contact about the Agalarovs.

Trump Jr., who runs the family's Trump Organization business, released emails last week in which he eagerly agreed to meet the woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who might have damaging information about Clinton as part of Moscow's official support for his father's presidential campaign.

The meeting appears to be the most tangible evidence of a connection between Trump's campaign and Russia, a subject that has prompted investigations by congressional committees and Mueller.

In addition to Trump Jr., Veselnitskaya and her translator, and Kaveladze, the meeting was attended by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, Trump's then-campaign manager, Paul Manafort; publicist Rob Goldstone; and Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and David Alexander; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)