Mother Jones: Here's Evidence of Collusion: Trump's Lawyer Discussed Business Deal w/ Putin's Office
Heres Evidence of Collusion: Trumps Lawyer Discussed Business Deal With Putins Office
MIchael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress and reveals that Trumps company hooked up with Moscow.
David Corn November 29, 2018 12:15 PM
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-discussed-business-deal-with-putins-office/
News of Trumps secret deal in Russia did not emerge until after the 2016 election. And when the story came out, Cohen insisted that though Trump had been involved in the project he (Cohen) ended the venture on his own in January 2016. Cohen also said that he had tried to contact Dmitry Peskov, a top aide to Putin, for assistance, but that he had only used an email address he found on the internet for Peskovs office and never heard back. Thats the tale he told the congressional committees: he killed the project before the 2016 primaries began, and he did not make contact with Putins office.
This was all a lie.
According to the document Mueller filed, negotiations for the Moscow deal went on at least until June 2016, when Trump was the presumptive GOP nominee, and Cohen did make contact with Putins office. Cohen also admitted to Mueller that he spoke with Trump more often about the Russia project than he had told Congress.
The real story, Cohen acknowledged, was that Cohen emailed Peskovs office twice, seeking help from Putins aide. According to the filing, Cohen heard back from Peskovs personal assistant, who asked that he call her. Cohen called her and explained the project, providing the name of the Russian development company with which the Trump Organization was working. Cohen asked her for help in moving the project forward, both in securing land for the proposed Trump tower and finding financing for the endeavor. Peskovs assistant asked detailed questions, took notes, and said she would take up the matter with others in Russia. The next day, Sater contacted Cohen and asked Cohen to call him, noting, Its about [the President of Russia] they called today.
A fair reading of this is that Cohens call to Peskovs office paid off: the next day someone connected to Putin got involved.