While Donald Trump was running for president in late 2015 and early 2016, his company was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow, according to several people familiar with the proposal and new records reviewed by Trump Organization lawyers.
Remember Trump saying, again and again, he had no business dealings in Russia?
Well, it turns out that Trump was actively pursuing significant commercial interests in Russia at the same time he was campaigning to be president. The new information, scheduled to be turned over to congressional investigators soon, also suggests additional contacts between Russia-connected individuals and Trump associates during his presidential bid.
In late 2015 and early 2016, Trump’s company was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow. As part of the discussions, a Russian-born real estate developer urged Trump to come to Moscow to tout the proposal and suggested that he could get President Vladimir Putin to say “great things” about Trump.
The developer, Felix Sater, predicted in a November 2015 email that he and Trump Organization leaders would soon be celebrating — both one of the biggest residential projects in real estate history and Donald Trump’s election as president, according to two of the people with knowledge of the exchange.
Sater wrote to Trump Organization Executive Vice President Michael Cohen “something to the effect of, ‘Can you believe two guys from Brooklyn are going to elect a president?’ ” said one person briefed on the email exchange. Sater emigrated from what was then the Soviet Union when he was 6 and grew up in Brooklyn.
The noose continues to tighten.
By Carol D. Leonnig, Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman
