Donald Trump Jr. appeared on Fox News Monday night to downplay the Trump Tower Moscow project and minimize Michael Cohen's role within the Trump Organization.
Despite Cohen’s efforts, Trump Jr., who is an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said there were many unknowns for the project, including the developer and the site, but didn’t disclose when the deal was last discussed with Cohen.
“Ultimately, it was Michael Cohen essentially trying to get a deal done,” Trump Jr. told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Monday evening. “He was there for a long time, he wasn't exactly a deal guy. He didn’t bring too many to the table, so I don't think anyone took it all that seriously. That is the reality of what went on.”
And Rudy Giuliani, who has created a mess for the president with his constantly shifting stories about possible campaign collusion, Michael Cohen, and Trump Tower Moscow, told The New Yorker Monday afternoon the Russian development deal was no big deal.
"The only thing that ever happened was that they submitted a letter of intent about a possible project in Moscow that never went beyond that. No money was ever paid, no plans were ever made. There were no drafts. Nothing in the file. Nothing ever happened to it. Much ado about nothing, because the New York Times wants to crucify the President. And the President had no conversations. I shouldn’t say he had no conversations. He had a few conversations about this early-stage proposal that he ended somewhere in early 2016, and doesn’t have a recollection of anything else, and there is nothing to support anything else. This is a story that is completely exaggerated and made up."
However, hundreds of pages of business documents, emails, text messages, and architectural plans, obtained by BuzzFeed News over a year of reporting, tell a very different story. Trump Tower Moscow was a richly imagined vision of upscale splendor on the banks of the Moscow River.
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Trump had for 30 years tried to extend his real estate empire to Moscow. He even wrote about it in his book The Art of the Deal. But he never found the right opportunity — until 2013, when he visited Russia to host the Miss Universe pageant. “TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next,” he tweeted after the event.
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By September 2015, a New York architect had completed plans for a bold glass obelisk 100 stories high, to be topped by a gleaming, cut-diamond–like shape emblazoned on multiple sides with the Trump logo.
“The building design you sent over is very interesting,” the Russian real estate developer Andrey Rozov wrote to [Michael] Cohen in September 2015, “and will be an architectural and luxury triumph. I believe the tallest building in Europe should be in Moscow, and I am prepared to build it.”
According to a finalized letter of intent signed by Donald Trump on Oct. 28, 2015, the tower would have “approximately 250 first class, luxury residential condominiums.”
It would be located in Moscow City, a former industrial complex outside of the city center that has since been converted into an ambitious commercial district clustered with several of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe.
Its hotel portion would feature “approximately 15 floors” and contain “not fewer than 150 hotel rooms,” the letter of intent stated. The building would feature a luxury spa and fitness center, a commercial component “consistent with the overall luxury level of the Property,” and an office space “consistent with Class A luxury office properties,” as well as “luxury” parking.
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“My idea was to give a $50 million penthouse to Putin and charge $250 million more for the rest of the units,” Felix Sater told BuzzFeed News in November. “All the oligarchs would line up to live in the same building as Putin.”
The plans included detailed financial arrangements.
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By the time Donald Trump signed the project’s letter of intent, he was four months into his presidential campaign — running for the highest office in America while conducting private business negotiations with a hostile nation.
Trump’s Lawyer Said There Were “No Plans” For Trump Tower Moscow. Here They Are. (BuzzFeed News)
Trump Jr.: Michael Cohen wasn’t taken seriously on Trump Tower Moscow project (Washington Examiner)