ABC News reports congressional investigators are looking to know more about Robert Foresman, a U.S. banker with Kremlin ties who pursued contact with the Trump transition team.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent Robert Foresman a letter last January, asking "for an interview and documents related to efforts arrange a meeting or convey information between Vladimir Putin and then-candidate Donald Trump."
Foresman, who is now vice chairman of the Swiss bank UBS’s investment arm, lived for years in Moscow, where he led a $3 billion Russian investment fund and was touted by his new company as someone who maintains connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle ...
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Foresman was not an early Trump supporter. In 2015, he donated to both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, campaign records show. But in mid-November, Foresman sought contacts inside Trump’s orbit. And with ["The Apprentice' producer Mark] Burnett’s help, he found his way onto the daily calendar of Thomas Barrack, who at the time was chairing what would become Trump’s $100 million inaugural fund, internal emails show.
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Email exchanges shared with ABC News show Barrack’s meeting with Foresman was ultimately canceled. But sources said Foresman continued to pursue a role with the Trump team. In January, he secured a meeting with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, according to two sources familiar with Foresman’s contacts ...
... Also during the transition, Foresman held a December meeting in New York with the chairman of a state-owned Russian development bank, Sergei Gorkov, according to a recent court filing in an unrelated case. Gorkov was the same banker who flew from Moscow to New York for one day that month to meet with [Jared] Kushner.
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Foresman’s efforts to make contact with the Trump team attracted attention in part because of a belief by investigators that he has longstanding business connections in the Kremlin, sources told ABC News. Those ties stem, in part, from a relationship he has had with Matthias Warnig, a former member of the East German secret police, as described in court filings. In 2014, the New York Times described Warnig as one of the six officials considered to be part of Putin’s “inner circle” of advisers. The article noted that: “When Mr. Putin’s wife was badly injured in a car accident, Mr. Warnig’s bank arranged to pay for her medical care in Germany.”
Foresman also confirmed during a deposition that he has met another of the men in Putin’s “inner circle,” Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister who is now chairman of the Russian state oil producer, Rosneft. Foresman is asked about classified diplomatic cables, published by WikiLeaks, in which he is described as having “worked with Sechin over many years,” and is quoted praising Sechin as “very smart,” “incredibly hard working” and “exceptionally courteous.” Foresman said he “would not have said that I worked with Sechin over many years,” but that otherwise, the cable “looks broadly familiar and accurate.”
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There has been renewed interest in Foresman in recent weeks, coming as prosecutors in New York have ratcheted up inquiries into the events that occurred during the Trump transition and in the lead up to the Trump inauguration, sources have confirmed to ABC News.
US banker with ties to Putin’s inner circle sought access to Trump transition: Sources (ABC News)