Yuri Gripas
The Trump Organization was actively involved in discussions to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow while Donald Trump was running for president, The Washington Post reports. Citing several sources familiar with the matter and records reviewed by Trump Organization lawyers, the Post reports the discussions involved Russian-born real-estate developer Felix Sater, who at one point urged Trump to visit Moscow as part of the discussions so that President Vladimir Putin could say “great things” about him. Sater also reportedly predicted that the success of the Trump Tower deal would coincide with Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election. According to one source cited in the report, Sater wrote to Trump Organization Executive Vice President Michael Cohen and quipped “something to the effect of, ‘Can you believe two guys from Brooklyn are going to elect a president?’ ” Trump never visited Moscow as Sater proposed, but the new details are likely to raise questions about why he insisted throughout the presidential campaign that he had no business interests in Russia.