russia probe
The Trump Organization turns over details about 2 previously unreported contacts with Russia
President Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, had two previously unreported contacts with Russian agents during the 2016 campaign, The Washington Post reports. The first contact, several weeks before the Republican National Convention, involved Cohen exchanging emails about traveling to an economic conference in Russia that would have been attended by politicians including Russian President Vladimir Putin. The second case involved Cohen in conversation about a Moscow residential project in late 2015. Cohen both declined the invitation to the economic conference and rejected the Trump-branded Moscow project.
In August, The Washington Post reported that Cohen reached out to Dmitry Peskov, Putin's personal spokesman, during the presidential campaign to ask for help moving forward a stalled Trump Tower project in Moscow. Cohen said in a statement to congressional investigators that he reached out to Peskov at the recommendation of Felix Sater, the Russian-American businessman working on the Moscow project.
The Trump Organization handed over details of the newly reported interactions to the White House in light of the ongoing investigations by congressional committees as well as Special Counsel Robert Mueller. And while apparently no action stemmed from the conversations, the contact shows that "Trump's inner circle continued receiving requests from Russians deep into the presidential campaign," The Washington Post reports. Additionally, the documents show that "the Trump Organization fielded another inquiry for a Moscow project during the presidential campaign." Read the full story here.