It's entirely possible that a Kremlin effort to help Trump beat Hillary Clinton reached to lower levels because that's where it was easiest to establish contact with Trump's family. But it's more likely that Veselnitskaya, the tenacious and ambitious lawyer who could pull every string in the Moscow Region, did so to get her pet issue -- the repeal of the Magnitsky Act, which was getting her major client in trouble -- in front of some important Americans. That kind of effort would have been on the right level.
Even if that meeting didn't help, Veselnitskaya has every reason to be happy Trump won. He fired U.S. Attorney Bharara in March, and in May, the case in which Denis Katsyv was involved ended in a surprise $6 million settlement, agreed by Bharara's successor Joon Kim. Katsyv escaped with just the payment, without admitting any guilt. No lawyer in Veselnitskaya's situation could have asked for more.
