WASHINGTON (AP) – Confused about the business proposal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow? Join the club.
President Donald Trump’s lawyer-spokesman Rudy Giuliani and a disputed Buzzfeed News report have muddied the waters on exactly how long negotiations over the project went on. It’s a key question because Trump was pursuing the deal during the 2016 campaign while he was publicly calling for easing U.S. sanctions on Russia and as Moscow was directing a large-scale operation aimed at swaying the election his way.
Here’s what we know so far:
– September and October 2015: As a Trump Organization lawyer, Michael Cohen receives a proposal for a hotel, office and residential building in Russia that comes to be known as the Trump Tower Moscow project. One of Trump’s numerous corporate entities then enters into a letter of intent on the project.
– Late 2015: Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump are copied on emails about the project. In one email, Ivanka Trump suggests an architect for the building.