The House Intelligence Committee plans to probe the Trump Organization’s alleged efforts in 2016 to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a free penthouse in a proposed Trump property in Moscow, according to a new report.
The Trump family business’ plan to give Putin a penthouse at the property was originally reported by BuzzFeed News on Thursday.
“If true, this story further underscores the need to finish the Committee’s counterintelligence investigation to determine what, if any, financial leverage the Russians may hold over President Trump and the Trump Organization, and what Trump may have hoped to gain by any financial offer to Putin,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the incoming Intelligence Committee chairman, said in a statement to BuzzFeed.
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, pleaded guilty this week to lying to Congress about the proposed Moscow project, including its timing.
Cohen said during the 2016 presidential election he continued to negotiate the project on behalf of Trump well after he clinched the Republican nomination.
The project was ultimately nixed, a point Trump emphasized on Twitter Friday.
“Oh, I get it! I am a very good developer, happily living my life, when I see our Country going in the wrong direction (to put it mildly),” Trump tweeted Friday. “Lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in Russia. Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn’t do the project. Witch Hunt!”
Trump responded harshly to Cohen’s plea deal calling his former attorney “very weak” and accusing him of lying to get a more lenient sentence.
