As a lawyer, a criminal and a Russian general, they sought a deal on Trump’s Moscow tower

Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's role in the Moscow tower scheme "has come under renewed scrutiny after he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress."

He writes about it The New York Times, translation of an article’s publication leads Inopressa. “However, these efforts were led primarily by Felix Sater, a convicted felon and longtime business associate with extensive ties to Russia.”

To launch the project, the newspaper writes, “Sater brought in General Yevgeny Shmykov to help organize the issuance of visas for Cohen and Trump to visit Russia. This is evidenced by emails and interviews with several people familiar with the events.”

“For months, the criminal, a former Russian intelligence officer and Trump's lawyer worked to arrange the deal, negotiating with a Putin aide, Russian bankers and real estate developers for this purpose. But by July 2016, when Trump had already become the Republican presidential candidate and as accusations of Russian election interference were heating up, the project was abandoned, and neither Cohen nor Trump went to Moscow,” the newspaper notes.

Photo by: kremlin.ru

Cohen told special counsel Robert Mueller that his involvement in the project "was much longer, his contacts with the Russians and his briefings to Trump were more frequent than he previously stated."

"Cohen's recollections, as well as documents related to Sater's work for the Trump Organization that were obtained by The New York Times, provide a more complete picture of Trump's business ventures in Moscow."

For the first time, the newspaper reported on the existence of the 2016 deal of the year last year. Buzzfeed News then provided additional details, including the participation of a former Russian intelligence officer, but did not name it.

“Trump's efforts in 2016 were just the latest episode in a long, sporadic quest dating back to the 1980s. But as the Trump brand became increasingly famous, gracing hotels and commercial towers around the world, the Russian version never became a reality—even after Trump secured trademarks in the country and dispatched emissaries to seek deals. including their children,” the publication says.

The newspaper reminds that Sater, an American citizen who immigrated from Russia as a child, relied on the connections he had developed in Russia in 1990, when he began to secretly cooperate with American intelligence agencies, which, in turn, helped to reduce his punishment after pleading guilty on the 40 million dollar fraud case (earlier, in 1991, he was convicted of a fight in a bar in Manhattan).

“In their report on Russian election interference, House Intelligence Committee Republicans accepted Cohen and Sater's assertions that the Trump Tower project was a business venture and had no political overtones,” the publication noted. The report - which does not mention Shmykov's role - concluded that no "elements of the Russian government were actually directly involved in the project."

“Cohen's guilty plea on Thursday sheds new light on this finding. Among other things, Cohen now admits that he repeatedly tried to contact Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, who sent an aide to discuss the tower project with Cohen. Cohen said he had a 20-minute conversation with a Kremlin adviser in January 2016.”

“In a message to Cohen the next day, Sater mentioned Putin and said that someone had contacted him about the project: “They called today.” Later, in May 2016, he told Cohen that a Russian official had invited the lawyer to an economic forum in St. Petersburg and it was hoped he might meet Putin there. Cohen initially agreed, and then met with Sater in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York and said he would not go,” the newspaper writes.

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