Donald Trump swore that he had nothing to do with Russia during his campaign and after. Of course, that was a lie. Chris Cuomo of CNN secured a copy of the Trump letter of intent with the Russians. POTUS has been hot to build a Trump Tower in Moscow for decades, and it looks like he was close.
The man currently sitting in the Oval Office began negotiations on a “condominium, hotel, and property” project in downtown Moscow on October 28, 2015, CNN reported. Trump’s name was clearly shown on the letter of intent.
Trump’s TV attorney and former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani claimed that the letter of intent had never been signed, so it was invalid. He told CNN:
‘It was a real estate project. There was a letter of intent to go forward, but no one signed it.’
This letter of intent agreement was designed with a get-out-of building clause, meaning it was non-binding to either party. Russian owner of I.C. Expert Investment Company, Andrey Rozov signed it and initialed each page.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump told his audiences over and over he had “nothing to do with Russia.” However, the project paid $4 million in advance, a percent of the sales, all the marketing and design, and zero upfront fees. He would have made a mint.
Not only that, the soon-to-be president was going to name the hotel spa after his first daughter, Ivanka.
Even though Trump claimed he was not working with Moscow, he was also telling people at his rallies good things about the possibility of working with the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. The candidate also minimized concerns about “Russia’s aggressive military moves around the world,” according to CNN.
Giuliani indicated that POTUS had talked to his former personal attorney and self-described fixer, Michael Cohen, during this step in the project. These conversations happened after 2016, and Giuliani said they could have gone on as long as November 2016.
Perhaps referring to how the president answered special counsel Robert Mueller’s questions, Giuliani said:
‘According to the answer that he gave, it would have covered all the way up to November of — covered all the way up to November 2016.’
Trump’s TV attorney said this question from Mueller generally wondered whether Trump had discussed the project with his fixer. Giuliani said there were no “specific dates of conversations” involved in Mueller’s questions.
Cohen testified before Congress’ committees looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential committee. At that time, he said that the president had signed the letter of intent. In addition, the president’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr. also told Congress that the elder Trump had, indeed, signed this letter of intent.
The fixer was sentenced to three years in jail for a variety of crimes, including playing a part in paying hush money to women who had affairs with Trump. The payments occurred shortly before the 2016 presidential election and were meant to give the commander-in-chief a better chance at winning. However, Trump denied the affairs.
Check out the full letter of intent.
https://youtu.be/3ty_tKhUXZA
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
