BREAKING NEWS: Per an April '17 Bloomberg article, would-be Kushner dinner-guest Alexander Torshin is "an old acquaintance of Trump" who tried to meet the President at a February 2, 2017 prayer breakfast but was mysteriously turned down at the last moment. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
2/ FURTHER BREAKING NEWS: Putin ally Torshin met with Trump right before he announced his presidential run in 2015, has been in contact with him since 2012. 
3/ The sudden cancellation of the Trump-Torshin meeting Torshin expected on February 2nd may well have been tied to the then-exploding Flynn affair—the same situation that may have nixed Papadopoulos' "blank check" job offer the same week. Trump was shutting down his Russia shop.
4/ So (@tedlieu and others) if it's true—as NBC News says—that "Congressional investigators don't know how" Torshin ended up sitting with Donald Trump Jr. after Kushner appeared to turn him down, consider the answer is the man Torshin called a "five-year acquaintance": the POTUS.
5/ If Torshin was willing to seek a clandestine meet with President Trump in February—at a prayer breakfast—imagine how bold he was in contacting Trump backchannel during the campaign? This looks for all the world like a Kushner-Trump Jr. tag-team to set this up with deniability.
PS/ Amazing—you have a NYT "scoop" and a CNN "scoop" on Torshin and *neither* acknowledges Bloomberg's April reporting saying a) Trump and Torshin met at the *2015* NRA event, b) have been acquaintances 5 years, c) almost met again when Torshin tried to see Trump in February '17.
PS2/ Note that both Torshin AND Team Trump lied about the 2016 NRA event: Torshin said he steered clear of Trump (a lie; he tried to meet him and failed to do so) and Team Trump says Trump Jr. didn't sit with Torshin (a lie; he did). So what are Trump and the Kremlin hiding here?
