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Q And had you met Mr. Akhmetshin before?

A I have known Mr. Akhmetshin since I was a reporter at the Wall Street Journal.

Q And other than this dinner, have you, Mr. Akhmetshin, and Ms. Veselnitskaya ever had any meetings together?

A I don't know whether the three of us have met together specifically. I think there have been other meetings or maybe lunches or something that -- where we have all been present. At the time of the most of this case, she was just a lawyer from Russia. So I don't have a very clear memory of all the meetings and lunches and things.

Q Did you understand her to be acting on behalf of the Russian Government or to have had a past relationship with the Russian Government?

A I certainly didn't understand her to be acting on behalf of the Russian Government. And it was my impression that she was not a heavy hitter in Moscow or with the Kremlin. She seemed to be ambitious, but she didn't seem to be, you know, carrying the Kremlin stripes. I just remember she was introduced to me as someone who had previously been a government lawyer, and described to me by the Baker lawyers as actually a very good lawyer who seemed to really have a strong command of facts. And in my dealings with her, that turned out to be true. I mean she was able to produce a lot of records on these criminal cases that we were interested in.

Q Did Mr. Akhmetshin work with you on the Prevezon litigation?

A I mean we both worked on the same case, and I had occasion to deal UNCLASSIFIED, COMMITTEE SENSITIVE