'Trump's personal lawyer emailed Putin's spokesman for help on a business deal during the election'
Business Insider is being circumspect in their description of Sater as a 'Russian businessman.' Other sources describe him as a 'Russian mobster.'The Russian-born businessman who pushed for the Trump Organization to pursue a massive real-estate deal in Moscow during the 2016 presidential election was spotted at Trump Tower months after the deal fell apart.
The businessman, Felix Sater, told Politico at the time that the purpose of his visit last July was "confidential." But his presence there seven months after the Moscow real-estate deal fell through, and less than three months before Election Day, raises questions about who in President Donald Trump's orbit he was still in touch with — and why.
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Emails exchanged between Sater and Cohen — who have known each other since they were teenagers — in November 2015 indicate that they were preparing to celebrate not only Trump's election victory, but also the potential Russia deal. Sater boasted of his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the emails, which were obtained by The New York Times on Monday, telling Cohen that he would "get all of Putins team to buy in" on the Moscow deal.
"Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it," Sater wrote, according to The Times. "I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected."
Two months later, Cohen emailed Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, asking for his "assistance" in pushing the deal through, according to emails submitted to congressional investigators and read to The Post on Monday.
"Over the past few months I have been working with a company based in Russia regarding the development of a Trump Tower - Moscow project in Moscow City," Cohen wrote Peskov, The Post reported. "Without getting into lengthy specifics the communication between our two sides has stalled."
Cohen continued: "As this project is too important, I am hereby requesting your assistance. I respectfully request someone, preferably you, contact me so that I might discuss the specifics as well as arranging meetings with the appropriate individuals. I thank you in advance for your assistance and look forward to hearing from you soon."
The Times' Maggie Haberman said on Twitter that Cohen sent the email to a generic Kremlin email address that was not Peskov's. Cohen told The Post that he never heard back from Peskov and that the deal was scrapped by late January 2016.
Trump of course said that though he knew who Sater was, in a sworn deposition in 2013 stated that he wouldn't recognize Sater if they were in the same room. This is the man that said he has 'the world's greatest memory' (though he later claimed that he couldn't recall saying that
).Trump with Sater (on the right) in 2007.
Another image of Trump with Sater.
