- The spy was contacted by businessman Felix Sater in 2016, according to sources
- He promised funding for Trump Tower Moscow from state-owned VTB bank
- Slater was in touch with Michael Cohen, Trump’s attorney, about it at the time
- The plan for the Moscow hotel was scrapped when Trump won the Republican nomination
- The role of the agent in the deal is reportedly part of Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference
A former Russian spy worked on the deal for Trump Tower Moscow while the president was running for office and told a US businessman with ties to Michael Cohen that he would get a Kremlin-owned bank to fund it, it has been claimed.
The spy has not been named in order to protect their life.
According to two sources cited by BuzzFeed News on Saturday, in 2016, businessman Felix Sater, who was working on the deal, sent Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen an email referencing the spy.
He is a former colonel in Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU who Sater contacted the year before asking for help with securing funding for the deal, according to the sources.
Michael Cohen (pictured left on April 14, 2018) knew about the Russian agent’s role in the deal, according to sources, because Felix Sater (right) had emailed him about it and described how he’d promised to get funding from a Russian state-owned bank
The retired colonel is said to have promised funding from Russia’s VTB bank which is owned by the state and was on a US sanctions list at the time.
VTB denied ever having negotiations with anyone for the deal which was scrapped after Trump won the Republican nomination.
The Russian agent is also said to have worked for US intelligence agencies in the past.
The scrapped deal is part of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Trump’s contact with Russian officials.
Sater later told Cohen in emails that he would get ‘all of Putin’s team to buy in to the tower’ but it was never built thanks to Trump winning the Republican nomination. Sater was grilled by special prosecutors about the agent’s role last year. He is pictured with Trump in 2005
The spy promised to secure funding for the deal from state-owned VTB bank but it is unclear how far negotiations ever went. The bank denies ever being involbed
Sater, despite later boasting in an email to Cohen that he would get ‘get all of Putin’s team to buy in’ to the tower, has said the remarks amounted to nothing but salesmanship.
He will not comment on the role of the former Russian agent but it was among questions special prosecutors asked him when he was grilled last year as part of the Russia probe, according to the sources.
The officer is how Sater is said to have become an informant for the US government about international deals.
He is who reportedly introduced him to the government after meeting him in 1997.
Advertisement