THE MONEY TRAIL
Washington, DC
Posted on February 1, 2019, at 12:36 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that his company had not selected a location to build a Trump Tower Moscow during the 2016 presidential election.
“That deal was not important. It was essentially a letter of intent or an option. I’m not even sure that they had a site,” Trump told the New York Times in a wide-ranging interview, excerpts of which the paper published online
“I don’t think they had a location,” he said later in the interview. “I’m not even sure if they had a location.”
In fact, hundreds of pages of business documents, emails, text messages, and architectural plans obtained show that the Trump Organization was scoping at least one prime location for the luxury glass skyscraper. The signed letter of intent includes a proposal to build the tower in Moscow City, a former industrial complex near the edge of the Moscow River that has since been converted into an ambitious commercial district clustered with several of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe. It is not clear whether any other sites ever came under consideration.
Trump repeated claims by his lawyer Rudy Giuliani that the Moscow tower was barely more than a notion. “No plans were ever made,” Giuliani said earlier this month. “There were no drafts. Nothing in the file.” BuzzFeed News last week published detailed plans revealing that the tower was in fact a richly imagined vision of upscale splendor on the banks of the river, expected to yield profits in excess of $300 million. But Trump told the New York Times that Trump Moscow was never a serious proposition. “This was a very unimportant deal,” he said. “I didn’t care.”
Though the plans to build the tower never came to fruition, they have become a key chapter in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Kremlin.
Trump and his team have repeatedly sought to distance the president from the project, which was unfolding behind the scenes of his presidential campaign, and paint the plan as a meaningless proposal pursued largely by Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney and fixer, with minimal oversight.
Cohen has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about when the deal ended, falsely stating that discussions stopped in January 2016. BuzzFeed News had previously revealed that the Trump Moscow project lasted until at least June that year. Giuliani has since suggested that the effort lasted even longer, through the November election, though he later described that characterization as “hypothetical.”
Mueller’s team has confirmed in a court filing that the project continued after January and that discussions in fact continued until June. The filing noted that Cohen had “discussed the status and progress of the Moscow Project with Individual 1” — widely identified as Trump — “on more than the three occasions” Cohen had claimed to congressional investigators and had also briefed members of the president’s family about the project.
Throughout the campaign, Trump vehemently denied having any business interests in Russia. But BuzzFeed News reported last month that law enforcement sources said he received at least 10 updates about the Trump Moscow plans and then directed Cohen to lie to Congress about when those negotiations ended in order to obscure his own involvement.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmaloop...oscow-site
Washington, DC
Posted on February 1, 2019, at 12:36 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that his company had not selected a location to build a Trump Tower Moscow during the 2016 presidential election.
“That deal was not important. It was essentially a letter of intent or an option. I’m not even sure that they had a site,” Trump told the New York Times in a wide-ranging interview, excerpts of which the paper published online
“I don’t think they had a location,” he said later in the interview. “I’m not even sure if they had a location.”
In fact, hundreds of pages of business documents, emails, text messages, and architectural plans obtained show that the Trump Organization was scoping at least one prime location for the luxury glass skyscraper. The signed letter of intent includes a proposal to build the tower in Moscow City, a former industrial complex near the edge of the Moscow River that has since been converted into an ambitious commercial district clustered with several of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe. It is not clear whether any other sites ever came under consideration.
Trump repeated claims by his lawyer Rudy Giuliani that the Moscow tower was barely more than a notion. “No plans were ever made,” Giuliani said earlier this month. “There were no drafts. Nothing in the file.” BuzzFeed News last week published detailed plans revealing that the tower was in fact a richly imagined vision of upscale splendor on the banks of the river, expected to yield profits in excess of $300 million. But Trump told the New York Times that Trump Moscow was never a serious proposition. “This was a very unimportant deal,” he said. “I didn’t care.”
Though the plans to build the tower never came to fruition, they have become a key chapter in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Kremlin.
Trump and his team have repeatedly sought to distance the president from the project, which was unfolding behind the scenes of his presidential campaign, and paint the plan as a meaningless proposal pursued largely by Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney and fixer, with minimal oversight.
Cohen has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about when the deal ended, falsely stating that discussions stopped in January 2016. BuzzFeed News had previously revealed that the Trump Moscow project lasted until at least June that year. Giuliani has since suggested that the effort lasted even longer, through the November election, though he later described that characterization as “hypothetical.”
Mueller’s team has confirmed in a court filing that the project continued after January and that discussions in fact continued until June. The filing noted that Cohen had “discussed the status and progress of the Moscow Project with Individual 1” — widely identified as Trump — “on more than the three occasions” Cohen had claimed to congressional investigators and had also briefed members of the president’s family about the project.
Throughout the campaign, Trump vehemently denied having any business interests in Russia. But BuzzFeed News reported last month that law enforcement sources said he received at least 10 updates about the Trump Moscow plans and then directed Cohen to lie to Congress about when those negotiations ended in order to obscure his own involvement.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmaloop...oscow-site
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