During the 2016 campaign, the Trump Organization wanted to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a $50 million penthouse in Trump Tower Moscow, four people with knowledge of the matter told BuzzFeed News.
Two law enforcement officials said Michael Cohen, President Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, met with a representative of Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, to discuss the plan. Real estate promoter Felix Sater told BuzzFeed News he worked on the plan with Cohen, and they thought if Putin was in Trump Tower Moscow, wealthy movers and shakers would follow. "In Russia, the oligarchs would bend over backwards to live in the same building as Vladimir Putin," he said. Trump Tower Moscow was never built.
On Thursday, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to the Senate about Trump's business dealings in Russia. Cohen had testified the Trump Tower Moscow deal collapsed in January 2016, but court documents state he later admitted the deal moved forward beyond that. It's not clear if Trump knew about the plan to give the penthouse to Putin, BuzzFeed News reports; in court documents, Cohen said he regularly briefed Trump and his family on the negotiations in Moscow.
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