WaPo: Trump Atty Cohen Emailed Putin’s Personal Spox For Business Deal Help

FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2016, file photo, Michael Cohen, an attorney for President-elect Donald Trump, arrives in Trump Tower in New York. Cohen fired back at critics on Twitter on May 14, 2017, after he posted a picture of his daughter wearing lingerie. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2016, file photo, Michael Cohen, an attorney for Donald Trump, arrives in Trump Tower in New York. The House intelligence committee said May 31, it is issuing subpoenas for President Donald Tr... FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2016, file photo, Michael Cohen, an attorney for Donald Trump, arrives in Trump Tower in New York. The House intelligence committee said May 31, it is issuing subpoenas for President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser and his personal lawyer, Cohen, as well as their businesses as part of its investigation into Russian activities during last year's election. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

President Donald Trump’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen contacted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman in January 2016 to ask for help with a potential Moscow project, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

The Washington Post reported, citing documents submitted to Congress, that Cohen emailed Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov to ask for “assistance” with a Trump Tower development project in Moscow that was never completed.

“Without getting into lengthy specifics. the communication between our two sides has stalled,” Cohen, formerly executive vice president of the Trump Organization, wrote to Peskov, according to the report.

Cohen said he was “working with a company based in Russia regarding the development of a Trump Tower – Moscow project in Moscow City” and said the project was “too important,” according to the Washington Post.

“I am hereby requesting your assistance. I respectfully request someone, preferably you, contact me so that I might discuss the specifics as well as arranging meetings with the appropriate individuals,” he wrote, according to the report. “I thank you in advance for your assistance and look forward to hearing from you soon.”

In a statement Cohen submitted along with the documents, according to the Washington Post, he told Congressional investigators that he reached out to Peskov at Felix Sater’s recommendation.

Sater, a convicted felon and Trump’s former business partner, knew Cohen dating back to his teenage years and often shopped Trump’s name to developers, though Cohen reportedly was “a lead negotiator” on the Trump Tower project.

The New York Times reported Monday that Sater bragged about his connections to Putin and predicted the Russian leader would help ensure Trump’s election.

“Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,” Sater wrote to Cohen in 2015, according to the report. “I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: