The Trump Organization Planned To Give Vladimir Putin The $50 Million Penthouse In Trump Tower Moscow
Category: News & Politics
Via: jbb • 2 years ago • 54 commentsBy: Anthony Cormier, Jason Leopold (BuzzFeed News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
During the presidential campaign, Michael Cohen discussed the matter with a representative of Putin's press secretary, according to two US sources.
By 
by Anthony Cormier
and 
by Jason Leopold
President Donald Trump's company planned to give a $50 million penthouse at Trump Tower Moscow to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the company negotiated the luxury real estate development during the 2016 campaign, according to four people, one of them the originator of the plan.
Two US law enforcement officials told BuzzFeed News that Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer at the time, discussed the idea with a representative of Dmitry Peskov, Putin's press secretary.
The Trump Tower Moscow plan is at the heart of a new plea agreement by Cohen, who led the negotiations to bring a gleaming, 100-story building to the Russian capital. Cohen acknowledged in court that he had lied to Congress about the plan in order to protect Trump and his presidential campaign.
The revelation that representatives of the Trump Organization planned to forge direct financial links with the leader of a hostile nation at the height of the campaign raises fresh questions about President Trump's relationship with the Kremlin. The plan never went anywhere because the tower deal ultimately fizzled, and it is not clear whether Trump knew of the intention to give away the penthouse. But Cohen said in court documents that he regularly briefed Trump and his family on the Moscow negotiations.
BuzzFeed News first reported in May on the secret dealings of Cohen and his business associate Felix Sater with political and business figures in Moscow.
The two men worked furiously behind the scenes into the summer of 2016 to get the Moscow deal finished — despite public claims that the development was canned in January, before Trump won the Republican nomination. Sater told BuzzFeed News today that he and Cohen thought giving the Trump Tower's most luxurious apartment, a $50 million penthouse, to Putin would entice other wealthy buyers to purchase their own. "In Russia, the oligarchs would bend over backwards to live in the same building as Vladimir Putin," Sater told BuzzFeed News. "My idea was to give a $50 million penthouse to Putin and charge $250 million more for the rest of the units. All the oligarchs would line up to live in the same building as Putin." A second source confirmed the plan
Sater, a brash real estate promoter who pleaded guilty to racketeering in 1998 and became a longtime asset to US law enforcement and intelligence agencies, had worked with the Trump Organization on deals in the past and said he came up with the idea. Cohen, Sater recalled, said, "Great idea."
Provided to BuzzFeed News
Texts between Michael Cohen and Felix Sater.
Cohen would not comment. Cohen's attorney, Guy Petrillo, did not return a detailed message. The Trump Organization also did not return a message seeking comment. A spokesperson for the Kremlin declined to answer questions about the project.
Trump had personally signed the letter of intent to move forward on the Trump Tower Moscow plan on Oct. 28, 2015, the day of the third Republican primary debate.
On Thursday, shortly after news broke about Cohen's guilty plea, Trump told reporters, "There was a good chance that I wouldn't have won" the presidential election, "in which case I would have gotten back into the business, and why should I lose lots of opportunities?"
According to the criminal information filed against Cohen Thursday, on Jan. 20, 2016, he spoke with a Russian government official, referred to only as Assistant 1, about the Trump Tower Moscow plan for 20 minutes. This person appears to be an assistant to Peskov, a top Kremlin official whom Cohen had attempted to reach by email.
Cohen "requested assistance in moving the project forward, both in securing land to build the proposed tower and financing the construction," the court document states.
Cohen had previously maintained that he never got a response from the official, but in court on Thursday he acknowledged that was a lie.
Michael Cohen, former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, exits federal court, on Nov. 29 in New York City.
Two FBI agents with direct knowledge of the Trump Tower Moscow negotiations told BuzzFeed News earlier this year that Cohen was in frequent contact with foreign individuals about the real estate venture — and that some of these individuals had knowledge of or played a role in 2016 election meddling. The identity of those individuals remains unknown.
Developing a tower in Russia had long been a dream of the Trump Organization, which pursued a deal there for three decades. After Trump announced his candidacy in the summer of 2015, Sater saw an opportunity to revive the development.
"I figured, he's in the news, his name is generating a lot of good press," Sater told BuzzFeed News earlier this year. "A lot of Russians weren't willing to pay a premium licensing fee to put Donald's name on their building. Now maybe they would be."
So he turned to his old friend, Cohen, to get it off the ground. They arranged a licensing deal, by which Trump would lend his name to the project and collect a part of the profits. Sater lined up a Russian development company to build the project and said that VTB, a Russian financial institution that faced US sanctions at the time, would finance it. VTB officials have denied taking part in any negotiations about the project.
The back-and-forth carried into the summer, when Sater said that top bankers and government officials wanted to meet with Cohen and Trump in Russia.
Cohen said that Trump planned to go after the Republican convention in July. Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about this, and has acknowledged that he did so to protect the president.
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The CIA and FBI investigations (plural) of Trump's secretive relationships with agents of Russian State Intelligence Services were legally predicated and predated the 2016 US Presidential elections by years...
Lol. Your 5 year old article that was contradicted by the Mueller report. At least try and post updated information if you are going to try and pass of years old articles as "news"...
Even more interesting, How do you imagine this Buzzfeed report actually provides any factual support to the false claims you made? .Do you understand your outdated article doesn't say provide any evidence of the unrelated claims you make?
Let's go through an exercise in reading.
Where does it say, specifically, that there were multiple investigations of Trump by the FBI and CIA?
Where does it say Trump had secretive relationships with agents of the Russian State Intelligence Services?
Where does it say the investigations of Trump predated the 2016 Presidential election by years?
Ok. Since you are failing at your other attempt , lets try thins again.
Link? While you are at it, link the trial and conviction that makes this all so ever important.
You need to quit posting the same lies, time after time. People will get bored and start ignoring your seeds.
When do you think Joe and Hunter will be brought up on charges of bribery, influence peddling, selling national security secrets, and money laundering? The evidence is in plain sight and overwhelming.
Yet you and your MAGA comrades certainly are paying attention!
Stirred up like a hornets nest. Facts are facts and I've got facts...
Then the CIA broke that law since they are not legally chartered to collect intelligence on citizens domestically. That’s the FBIs job.
Like usual, all you gots is lies and exaggerations …..
Trump got himself investigated by not only the CiA and the FBI but MI6, the Israeli Mossad and Interpol also because he sought out and he met with and he developed relationships with a multitude of foreign agents and actual Russian spies. He had a personal relationship with Putin which would get anyone investigated but right up to election day in 2016 Trump was in constant negotiations with Vlad Putin himself to build a Trump Tower in Moscow right across the street from the Kremlin. He even offered Putin a luxury penthouse apartment as a bribe. Rudy Giuliani, Don Jr and Michael Cohen have all confirmed this true. If that isn't collision, what is?
This article is 5 years old FFS. You're really stretching hard...........................
He has to pretend the Mueller report doesn't exist so he can post about rumors that came from anonymous leaks.
Wrongo!
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The thing is, being 4, 5, or 6 years old, not a fucking thing came of it...............{{shrug}}
He was a businessman conducting business FFS and all the polls had him losing so WTF stop negotiating. All this is just wishful thinking.....and something for the weak to hold on to.
A candidate for President of the United States of America negotiating a billion dollar business deal with Vlad Putin was justification and legal predicate to initiate investigations...
Do you honestly think that he is the only one who conducted life when he was a candidate?
So? They found nothing. Joe and Jill Biden's taxes are public going back for decades. At least Biden is not claiming he was illegally investigated. Because Trump and the MAGA still lie that he was!
And they are clutched to it as if their lives depend on it.
Have those investigating Biden lied to FISA courts? You know, like the Democrats and the FBI did? Have those investigating Biden altered evidence? The Democrats did. Or did you keep you head in your 4th point of contact during the J6 Committee hearings?
This is the second article today he's run with this fiction.
He can't back anything up in the other article either.
You have not provided diddly squat to contradict me or my seeds!
Except, put you fingers in your ears and hollar, "NO NO NO NO"...
That has nothing to do with the fact that the CIA and FBI investigations of Trump's Russian dealing were all legally predicted based on Trump's own actions prior to 2016...
There's nothing to contradict. Give me something factual to contradict and I will. You can't even provide a link to these so called investigations.
But I see you went into meme mode. Nothing like announcing you can't back up your claims publicly. Not that any of us are surprised.
Deny This! The CIA and FBI investigations (plural) of Trump's secretive relationships with Putin and Russia were legally predicted by Trump seeking out and meeting with Russian spies and Putin operatives in the years leading up to 2016...
So you still won't give me something to contradict. Just going to spam your own articles ( yeah, we caught you trying the exact same thing here ) with the same fiction and memes?
Yes it does. Without the results of said investigations, it is a moot point, End of story. Full Stop
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Do you understand your own seeds contradict your imaginary claims?
So he was investigated. So fucking what?
Then you admit the Trump Russia investigations were legally predicted based upon Trump's own behavior and actions?
In someone's mind yes. Seems their mind had cobwebs and they wasted their time.........
So trump was allegedly going to give Putin a penthouse, While Biden gives him head and possibly Ukraine, One is a leftwing fantasy, the other is actually happening.