The investigation into possible Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election has taken a shocking twist with the news that Donald Trump – you know, the president that has had absolutely nothing to do with the Russians, doesn’t know what this Russian collusion stuff is about, total witch hunt – with the news that not only was Trump dealing with the Russians for a Trump Tower but was negotiating with Vladimir Putin to take the penthouse as a US$50 million present.
Typically Trump responded with the sort of measured calm and presidential bearing which is his trademark.
“This demonstrates the Robert Mueller and his partisans have no evidence, not a whiff of collusion, between Trump and the Russians. Russian project legal. Trump Tower meeting (son Don), perfectly legal. He wasn’t involved with hacking.” Gregg Jarrett. A total Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2018
Why is this an issue?
It means, as Bloomberg puts it, that “the Trump Organisation was continuing to pursue a business opportunity in Moscow deep into Trump’s run for president – a deal that remained live at a time when Russians were seeking to make multiple inroads into the campaign and had, according to Mueller, began social media and hacking efforts to benefit Trump’s campaign. Trump has publicly denied having any business with Russia at the time.”
Trump is continuing to insist that he wasn’t dealing with anyone in Russia, and certainly not when there was a meeting with an operative who promised “dirt” on Hilary Clinton in June 2016, the same point when the Democratic Party’s email servers were hacked.
It’s worth adding that there’s no direct evidence that Trump personally knew of the plan to give Putin the apartment, although Cohen claims that he (Cohen) and Russian developer Felix Sater discussed it as a way to attract deep-pocketed tenants seeking proximity to Vlad.
Trump has also cancelled a planned meeting with Putin at the G20. And that’s understandable: not only is it a bad look, Vlad probably doesn’t need to pick up any keys now.