the russia probe
Trump associate who proposed building Trump Tower in Moscow will testify to Congress
A former real estate partner of President Trump's has agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about Trump's business in Russia, Talking Points Memo reported Thursday. The businessman, Felix Sater, seems to think his testimony will be quite the surprise, too: In a text to Talking Points Memo, he said, "I hope you make the trip to witness it in person because I don't think it's going to go the way of everyone's favorite narrative."
On Wednesday, McClatchy reported that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) had requested that Sater appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee this month and provide documents related to Trump's business connections to Russia. In November 2015, Sater sent Trump lawyer Michael Cohen an email promising that the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow would help Trump's candidacy, The New York Times reported. "Our boy can become president of the U.S.A. and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin's team to buy in on this," Sater wrote.
Between 2002 and 2010, Trump partnered with Sater's real estate company, Bayrock, and lent his name to several of their developments. Trump, he of an "all-time" great memory, has claimed to not be familiar with Sater and said under deposition in 2013 that "if he were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn't know what he looked like."