Michael Cohen's guilty plea reveals he not only spoke with Donald Trump regularly about a possible Trump Tower Moscow deal but also kept other members of the Trump family in the loop.
On Thursday, Mr. Cohen told a federal judge he was aware of Mr. Trump’s “repeated statements” that any contact between Russians and Trump associates had terminated before the Iowa caucus in February 2016. Mr. Cohen sought to give Congress the false impression that talks for the Moscow project ended before the Iowa caucus in a bid to limit the continuing Russia investigation, prosecutors said.
The government said Mr. Cohen lied in part to conceal discussions he’d had with Trump family members about the project.
Investigators obtained emails about the project from late 2015 and January 2016, according to people familiar with the matter, in which Mr. Cohen communicated with or copied Mr. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, both of whom were executives at Trump Organization. Ms. Trump recommended an architect, the people said. She left the company after the election to advise her father at the White House.
Multiple sources have confirmed to Yahoo News that the president’s elder daughter, Ivanka, who is now a top White House adviser, and his eldest son, Don Jr. were also working to make Trump Tower Moscow a reality. The sources said those efforts were independent of Cohen’s work on the project. One of the sources said Ivanka was also involved in Cohen’s efforts. And a separate source familiar with the investigation told Yahoo News that Mueller has asked questions about Ivanka and Don Jr.’s work on Trump Tower Moscow.
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A source familiar with the Trump Organization confirmed to Yahoo News that Ivanka and Don Jr. engaged in separate efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. The source said these efforts began “years earlier” than Cohen’s project and concluded in 2013.
“They were not looking at any other deals after that,” the source said.
The source also confirmed that both Ivanka and Don Jr. were aware of Cohen’s attempts to build in Moscow. According to the source, Ivanka’s role was limited to recommending an architect and Don Jr. was only “peripherally” aware of the plan.
“Michael was looking at that deal. Don and Ivanka knew about it and Don testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he was peripherally aware of it,” the source said, adding, “That’s why we’re so perplexed Cohen would lie about briefing them because no one’s ever disputed that they knew he was looking at it.”
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Just prior to his inauguration, Trump vowed his family’s real estate company would do no new deals abroad while he was in office. It would not be illegal for the Trump Organization to have conducted business in Russia prior to that point, and Mueller inquiring about Ivanka and Don Jr.’s work on Trump Tower Moscow does not mean they are targets of his investigation.
“There’s no question they knew about it, but they had no knowledge of any work on the project after January 2016,” the source said.
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Reports have previously emerged detailing Ivanka and Don Jr.’s involvement in the Trump Tower Moscow efforts.. The Buzzfeed report revealed Sater accompanied the two Trump children to Moscow in 2006. A source told Yahoo News that, while there, the pair held meetings about the project separately from Sater. “ The book Russian Roulette, which was written by Yahoo News chief investigative correspondent Mike Isikoff and David Corn, detailed a 2013 effort that involved the Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov and his son Emin. According to the book, Don Jr. was “in charge” of that project and Ivanka “flew to Russia and scouted sites with Emin.” The Agalarovs helped Trump host his Miss Universe pageant in Russia in 2013 and helped arrange the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting. The Trump Organization registered the web address TrumpTowerMoscow.com in December 2012. A source familiar with the deal said this was in conjunction with the work being done with Agalarovs.
Cohen Says Trump Stayed Involved in Moscow Tower Project During Campaign (Wall Street Journal) *Note: All WSJ articles appear behind a paywall