Washington (CNN) The June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort included at least eight people. 
 
 The revelation of additional participants comes as The Associated Press first reported Friday that a Russian-American lobbyist named Rinat Akhmetshin said he also attended the June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. CNN has reached out to Akhmetshin for comment. 
 
 So far acknowledged in attendance: Trump Jr., Kushner, Manafort, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin and publicist Rob Goldstone, who helped set up the meeting. A source familiar with the circumstances told CNN there were at least two other people in the room as well, a translator and a representative of the Russian family who had asked Goldstone to set up the meeting. The source did not provide the names. 
 
 Akhmetshin is a registered lobbyist for Veselnitskaya's organization, which has focused on lobbying Washington to overturn the Magnitsky sanctions, according to lobbying records. The Magnitsky Act allows the US to withhold visas and freeze the assets of Russians thought to have violated human rights. Veselnitskaya founded a group purporting to seek the removal of Moscow's ban on the adoption of Russian children by US citizens, which it put in place in retaliation for the Magnitsky Act. She has also sought to repeal that law. 
 
 Earlier this year, Sen. Charles Grassley had written a letter to John Kelly, the secretary of Homeland Security, describing Akhmetshin as "a Russian immigrant to the United States who has been accused of acting as an unregistered agent for Russian interests and apparently has ties to Russian intelligence." Grassley was requesting "all information" on Akhmetshin's immigration history. 
 
 Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who has been lobbied by Akhmetshin, told CNN earlier this year that the lobbyist is someone with "an ulterior motive" who is "involved with people who've got an agenda" and has "international connections to different groups in Russia." When asked if he thought Akhmetshin was connected to the Russian security services, Rohrabacher said: "I would certainly not rule that out." 
 
 On Friday, Akhmetshin denied to The Washington Post that he was ever an intelligence agent but said he did serve two years in a Soviet military unit that handled counter-intelligence. 
 
 "At no time have I ever worked for the Russian government or any of its agencies. I was not an intelligence officer. Never," he told the Post. 
 
 Akhmetshin also told the AP the meeting was "not substantive" and he "actually expected more serious" conversation. 
 
 "I never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest," the AP quotes Akhmetshin. 
 
 The lawyer for Donald Trump Jr. has not responded. The White House has not commented yet either. 
 
 NBC was first to report the extra person at the meeting. 
 
 On June 9, 2016, Trump Jr., met with Veselnitskaya. He accepted the meeting on the premise that he would be offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton. 
 
 According to tweets published by Trump Jr. earlier this week, Goldstone sent him an email pointing to "a Russian government attorney" as the source of potential information that could damage Clinton. 
 
 "This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump," Goldstone, who represents the son of an Azerbaijani-Russian businessman close to Russian government, wrote in the email to Trump Jr. 
 
 "If it's what you say I love it," Trump Jr. replied, according to an email he released. 
 
 This story has been updated with additional reporting. ||||| Donald Trump Jr. Meeting Included Russian Lobbyist 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Richard Drew/AP Richard Drew/AP 
 
 Updated at 11:23 a.m. ET 
 
 When Donald Trump Jr. met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya last June at Trump Tower to gather information on Hillary Clinton for his father's presidential campaign, it's now clear there was at least one more Russian in the room. He has been identified in published reports as a Russian-American lobbyist named Rinat Akhmetshin. 
 
 Trump Jr. did not mention Akhmetshin in the emails and statements he released about the meeting earlier this week, although one email he received alluded to a second person. It said: "I will send the names of the two people meeting with you for security when I have them later today." 
 
 Akhmetshin has been described as a Russian "gun for hire" and a former Soviet-era spy and has worked in the West for years as an advocate for Russian interests. 
 
 But in an interview with The Associated Press published Friday morning, Akhmetshin denied having ties to Russian intelligence agencies. He also denied ever serving as a Russian counterintelligence officer, as he has been described in some media reports. "That is not correct," Akhmetshin told The Associated Press. Asked Friday about Akhmetshin, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said, "We don't know anything about this person," The Associated Press also reported. 
 
 Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, named Akhmetshin in a complaint in March about people who are effectively engaged in lobbying work but do not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Specifically, Akhmetshin has focused on trying to get Congress to repeal restrictions imposed under the Magnitsky Act, intended to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009, and he has dueled with advocates for the restrictions including financier Bill Browder, as described last year by Radio Free Europe. Browder was among the first to publicly identify Akhmetshin Friday morning after an NBC News report that said that network had learned the identity of a second Russian advocate in the meeting with Trump Jr. and top aides to the Trump campaign. 
 
 Akhmetshin was also accused in a 2015 lawsuit with attempting to hack into a mining company's computers. 
 
 Along with Trump Jr., at last June's meeting were then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner. 
 
 President Trump has repeatedly defended his son, calling him "a high quality person" and saying he "applaud(s) his transparency." The president also said the meeting was one "most people in politics would have taken." ||||| But, given the email traffic suggesting the meeting was part of a Russian effort to help Trump’s candidacy, the presence at the meeting of a Russian-American with suspected intelligence ties is likely to be of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate panels investigating the Russian election interference campaign. 
 
 As has been previously reported, the meeting was set up by music publicist Rob Goldstone, who told Donald Trump Jr. in an email chain that Veselnitskaya has "information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father." 
 
 Goldstone called Veselnitskaya a "Russian government attorney" — though she disputes that — and said the information was "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.” 
 
 The Associated Press quoted Akhmetshin saying that Veselnitskaya brought with her to the meeting a plastic folder with printed-out documents that detailed what she believed was a flow of illicit funds to the Democratic National Committee. 
 
 The lobbyist said Veselnitskaya presented the contents of the documents to the Trump team, suggesting it could help the Trump campaign, he said. 
 
 “This could be a good issue to expose how the D.N.C. is accepting bad money,” The AP quoted Akhmetshin recalling her saying. 
 
 Veselnitskaya told a slightly different story in her interview with NBC News. 
 
 She said she brought with her a two-page document, one small part of which involved alleged D.N.C. funding issues. Most of it involved allegations against the Magnitsky sanctions, she said. 
 
 Donald Trump Jr., she said, asked if she had any further supporting documents. 
 
 “He clearly asked me if I had any financial records to back and support the idea that some funds from illegal sources went to DNC, went to Hilary Clinton," she told NBC News. “In reply to that, I told him that not only I don't have any financial records of that time — there was no chance that I could somehow, anyhow, have such records.” 
 
 She added that Trump Jr. ended the meeting by saying, “Well, the story that you've told us, it sounds very interesting but unfortunately at the moment, there is nothing that we, we can help you with about it. But maybe if we come to power, maybe one day, we will get back to you on that, because it really sounds interesting.” 
 
 Related: What's Next in the Trump-Russia Saga? Here's What We Know Now 
 
 Contacted by NBC News, representatives for Kushner and Manafort declined to comment. 
 
 On April 4, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to the Homeland Security department seeking information about Akhmetshin, saying that Akhmetshin admitted to having a background in Soviet counterintelligence. He reportedly served as a sergeant, a non-commissioned role in the Soviet military. 
 
 Grassley said Akhmetshin had failed to register as a foreign agent even though he had been lobbying in the U.S. for Russian interests. Grassley also charged that Akhmetshin had been working with Fusion GPS, an opposition-research firm that had compiled a highly disputed dossier on Donald Trump. 
 
 Fusion GPS has also worked on the campaign to raise questions about the story behind the Magnitsky Act. 
 
 Alan Futerfas, the attorney retained by Donald Trump Jr., told NBC News two other people accompanied Veselnitskaya to the meeting — someone Futerfas described as a translator and someone he described as a "friend of Emin [Agalarov]’s and maybe as a friend of Natalia [Veselnitskaya]’s.” 
 
 Futerfas said he has talked with that individual. "He is a U.S. citizen. He told me specifically he was not working for the Russian government, and in fact laughed when I asked him that question.” 
 
 It was not clear whether Futerfas was referring to Akhmetshin. 
 
 Agalarov is a pop star and a client of Rob Goldstone, a music publicist who arranged the meeting with Trump Jr. Agalarov appeared in a music video with Trump when the Miss Universe pageant, which Trump owned at the time, was held in Moscow in 2013. 
 
 Futerfas confirmed that, “for the purpose of security or otherwise, the names were reviewed” but said Trump Jr. knew nothing about the man's background at the time of the meeting. 
 
 When asked about whether he had concerns, knowing what he knows now, Futerfas responded: “I have absolutely no concerns about what was said in that meeting.” 
 
 Veselnitskaya, in an exclusive interview with NBC News, denied having any connection to the Kremlin and insisted the meeting was to discuss sanctions, not the presidential campaign. ||||| The now-infamous Donald Trump Jr. meeting with a Russian lawyer during the presidential campaign had a previously undisclosed attendee. And that person is allegedly — I kid you not — a former Russian spook. 
 
 This latest news comes courtesy of a report published by NBC News on Friday morning. The man in question, according to NBC, is a “Russian-American lobbyist” and “a former Soviet counter intelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence.” 
 
 NBC chose not to publish his name, but the Associated Press has identified him as Rinat Akhmetshin — a longtime Washington lobbyist who was accused in court filings of being a former Soviet military intelligence officer who "developed a special expertise in running negative public-relations campaigns” (a charge he denies). 
 
 Trump Jr. somehow failed to disclose Akhmetshin’s presence at the meeting, making this the fifth time he chose to either lie about the meeting or omit some vital piece of information about it. To make matters worse, his own lawyer, Alan Futerfas, partially confirmed the story in a statement to NBC — admitting that there was at least one previously undisclosed attendee, possibly even two, at the fateful meeting. 
 
 “He is a US citizen,” Futerfas told NBC, referring to the unnamed attendee presumed to be Akhmetshin. “He told me specifically he was not working for the Russian government, and in fact laughed when I asked him that question.” 
 
 Which is exactly what a spy would do if you asked them if they were a spy. “This is how it is done,” Glenn Carle, a CIA operative who spent 23 years at the agency, told me after reading NBC’s scoop. 
 
 Now, it’s too early to say with any certainty that Akhmetshin was actually a Russian spy. His ties to Russian intelligence are still murky at this point — he is a dual US-Russian citizen who has lived in the US since 1994 and worked in Washington for decades on all sorts of lobbying campaigns, including ones related to the Magnitsky Act, US sanctions punishing Russia for its human rights record. 
 
 But NBC’s report does prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there’s more to this meeting than what we know right now. The Trumps are still lying to us. 
 
 It is impossible to believe the Trump account of the meeting anymore 
 
 My colleague Dara Lind has put together a comprehensive timeline of Donald Trump Jr.’s shifting stories on the Russia meeting. It’s worth reading in full, but here’s a shortened version: 
 
 First, Trump Jr. denied any meeting with Russians. 
 
 When the New York Times reported last Saturday that he had met with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, he said it was “a short introductory meeting” about “a program about the adoption of Russian children” — which is code for lifting Magnitsky sanctions. 
 
 When the Times reported in a Sunday follow-up that Trump Jr. went to the meeting to get dirt on Clinton, he admitted this was right — that Veselnitskaya was “an individual who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign,” but didn’t mention any potential Russian government connections. 
 
 On Tuesday, to preempt yet another Times scoop, Trump Jr. published his emails with British publicist Rob Goldstone about the Veselnitskaya meeting — in which Goldstone states that the meeting was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump” and Trump Jr. replies that “if it’s what you say I love it.” 
 
 Now, on Friday, Trump’s camp has admitted there was at least one more person at the meeting that we didn’t know about — and it seems plausible that this person, Akhmetshin, has at least some kind of connection to Russian intelligence. 
 
 What this demonstrates, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that the Trump camp cannot be trusted, at any point in time, to be telling the full and complete truth about what went down at the meeting. We now know, for a fact, that they have lied about the meeting having taken place, lied about the purpose of the meeting, lied about what they knew about the woman in the meeting, and lied (if only by omission) about who was at the meeting. 
 
 All of which raises a question: Why should we believe they’re telling the truth about what happened at the meeting? 
 
 So far, the line from the Trump camp has been that the meeting involved a brief conversation about Hillary Clinton, which yielded no information, and then shifted to the topic of Russian adoptions in the United States. That’s what Veselnitskaya said as well in an interview with NBC. 
 
 But why should we believe them? They’ve lied about everything else. If they actually discussed a complex scheme of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian hackers at the meeting, would they just admit it? Of course not, given the past track record. 
 
 Which is why this NBC scoop is so vital. 
 
 Not only does it establish that the pattern of lying and obfuscation is ongoing, but it reveals that there was at least one more person at the meeting who could corroborate (or disprove) the story about what happened. That person is also someone whose background will now almost certainly be investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller to see just how real the suspicions of his continuing connections to Russian intelligence are. If someone could substantiate that Akhmetshin really was still a Kremlin asset, that would bring the Russian government’s ties to the Trump campaign one giant step closer. 
 
 So at bottom, there’s one clear takeaway from this story: We are not yet even close to the full truth about Donald Trump Jr.’s dalliance with Russia. 
 
 Sean Illing contributed reporting for this piece. ||||| The translator who attended the June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin is a former State Department contractor, CBS News' Kylie Atwood has learned. 
 
 The translator has been identified as Anatoli Samochornov, who a State Department spokesperson confirmed has done contract work for them. Samochornov is not a State Department employee, the spokesperson said, but has worked with the State Department's Office of Language Services as an interpreter. Samochornov also helped the State Department implement exchange programs when he was working for Meridian International, a nonprofit that has a cooperative agreement with the State Department. 
 
 The Meridian contract under which Samochornov worked to support State Department-sponsored exchanges expired at the end of the fiscal year 2016. 
 
 LinkedIn 
 
 At the June 2016 meeting, Samochornov was working as a translator for Veselnitskaya, who reportedly Veselnitskaya does not speak any English. 
 
 A friend of Trump Jr.'s, Rob Goldstone, sent an email to Trump Jr. about Veselnitskaya, promising information from the Russian government on then-candidate Donald Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr.'s brother-in-law and now-presidential adviser Jared Kushner attended as well as campaign adviser Paul Manafort. 
 
 On Friday, Goldstone said there were more people at the meeting than initially reported. Among the participants, he told the Associated Press, was lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin. Akhmetshin confirmed his participation to The Associated Press on Friday. 
 
 Akhmetshin served in the Soviet military and is suspected of having ties to Russian intelligence. 
 
 Akhmetshin has worked with Veselnitskaya, who secured the meeting with Trump Jr. on the pretense of providing damaging information about Clinton. 
 
 The White House has continued to deal with the fallout from the meeting since its existence was first reported six days ago. CBS News has learned President Trump was briefed about Trump Jr. meeting three days before it was disclosed in the New York Times, though it seems he was not aware there were more people in the room than was first reported. 
 
 Initially, Trump Jr. and Kushner confirmed they attended, but said they discussed a disbanded U.S.-Russian adoption program. On Sunday, Trump Jr. confirmed he had been promised information "helpful to the campaign" and he had asked Manafort and Kushner to "stop by." Then on Tuesday, Trump Jr. posted to Twitter the emails where he wrote "I love it" after Goldstone wrote a Russian lawyer wanted to pass on negative information about Clinton and stated that the discussion was part of a Russian government effort to help the GOP candidate. 
 
 CBS News has confirmed Kushner has revised his paperwork for a White House security clearance twice. The last revision mentioned Veselnitskaya, though Kushner's attorney contends that disclosure was not legally required, and that Kushner was not introduced to others at the June 2016 meeting. 
 
 Earlier this week, Trump Jr. hired a new lawyer, Alan Futerfas, to handle Russia-related matters.
– Another intriguing detail to Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer: We already knew that he, Natalia Veselnitskaya, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort were in the room. Now comes word that Veselnitskaya brought along a Russian-born lobbyist described by NBC News as a "former Soviet counterintelligence officer who is suspected by some US officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence." The lobbyist's name is Rinat Akhmetshin, and he confirms to the AP that he attended the meeting. Like Trump Jr. and Veselnitskaya, however, he said the meeting didn't yield much of substance. "I never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest." He also denies being a spy. Coverage: His background: Akhmetshin was born in Russia, emigrated to the US after serving in the Soviet military, and reportedly holds dual citizenship. He insists to the Washington Post that he is not and was never a Russian intelligence officer. He says that he served two years in the Soviet army as an 18-year-old draftee and that his unit had some unspecified role in intelligence matters. But he says he never trained as a spy. Now a lobbyist: Now a Washington resident, he is well-known in congressional circles as a pro-Kremlin lobbyist, reports the New York Times. He has been working with Veselnitskaya trying to get the Magnitsky Act overturned. (The act, which punishes Russians accused of human rights abuses, is bitterly opposed by Vladimir Putin.) Grassley's letter: Now getting a lot of attention is a letter written by Sen. Chuck Grassley in April to Homeland Security seeking information about Akhmetshin. Grassley said he "has been accused of acting as an unregistered agent for Russian interests and apparently has ties to Russian intelligence." Read it here. Why was he there? Akhmetshin said Veselnitskaya invited him to attend the meeting at the last minute. This part gets vague: He said she had come across evidence that a US hedge firm seemingly linked to the Democratic National Committee was violating Russian tax laws and sought his advice on how to present the information, per the Post. Documents left behind? Both the Post and the AP suggest that Veselnitskaya did indeed leave behind a folder of documents about what she had uncovered regarding allegedly shady funds going to the DNC. Never heard of him: A spokesman for Putin says "we have no knowledge of this person." Putin similarly has denied knowing Veselnitskaya. Hacking accusation: NPR notes that in 2015, a mining firm accused Akhmetshin of hacking into its computer system. Details on that via Courthouse News. All this means what, exactly? Everyone will have to stay tuned. "Apparently the White House is content to let the media put together the puzzle, piece by piece," writes Aaron Blake at the Washington Post. "If they truly have nothing to hide, that's a really bad strategy." A similar sentiment from Zack Beauchamp at Vox: If nothing else, the new scoop "does prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there’s more to this meeting than what we know right now."