Vladimir Putin fretted to a group of oligarchs that he had no real contacts in Donald Trump’s inner circle and struggled to reach the president-elect in the days after the 2016 election, according to Robert Mueller’s special counsel report released on Thursday.
The Russian leader was so anxious to contact Trump that he reportedly had an intermediary cold-call Trump’s then-spokesperson, Hope Hicks, on her cellphone in the middle of the night after the Republican nominee claimed victory, according to the report.
“At approximately 3 a.m. on election night, Trump Campaign press secretary Hope Hicks received a telephone call on her personal cell phone from a person who sounded foreign but was calling from a number with a DC area code,” said the report. “Although Hicks had a hard time understanding the person, she could make out the words ‘Putin call.’”
Hicks told investigators that she asked the caller to email her, and the next day she received an email with a message attached from Putin congratulating Trump on his election and expressing interest in working with the president-elect.
“As soon as news broke that Trump had been elected President, Russian government officials and prominent Russian businessmen began trying to make inroads into the new Administration,” said the report. “They appeared not to have preexisting contacts and struggled to connect with senior officials around the President-Elect.”
Petr Aven, the head of Russia’s Alfa Bank, told Mueller’s investigators that he met with Putin and a group of around 50 other oligarchs shortly after the election.
“Putin spoke of the difficulty faced by the Russian government in getting in touch with the incoming Trump Administration,” said the report. “According to Aven, Putin indicated that he did not know with whom formally to speak and generally did not know the people around the President-Elect.”
Putin told the oligarchs they should conduct their own outreach to the Trump administration — a statement that was considered more of an order than a suggestion, according to Aven.
