Donald Trump’s company considered giving Vladimir Putin a $50 million (£39 million) penthouse flat at the proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, it was claimed today.
The alleged proposal was discussed as the Trump Organization negotiated the tower deal during the 2016 US presidential campaign, according to the Buzzfeed News website.
Plans for the 100-storey building fell through but the claim has raised new questions over Mr Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin.
In court in New York yesterday, his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the Moscow tower deal. He said he wrongly claimed the plan collapsed in January 2016, when it actually failed six months later.
Mr Cohen said he lied to support Mr Trump’s “political messaging”.
Buzzfeed alleges that two sources claimed Mr Cohen discussed with a Russian aide giving President Putin a penthouse.
Property developer Felix Sater, a former business associate of Mr Trump, reportedly told Buzzfeed: “My idea was to give a $50 million penthouse to Putin and charge $250 million more for the rest of the units. All the oligarchs would line up to live in the same building as Putin.”
There is no suggestion Mr Trump knew about the penthouse idea and he repeatedly insisted during his election campaign he had no business dealings with Russia.
Last night, he defended the aborted Moscow project, saying: “There would be nothing wrong if I did do it.” Critics claim he should not have been dealing with a country allegedly seeking to influence the US election.
But he said: “I was running my business while I was campaigning. There was a good chance I wouldn’t have won...
"I would have gone back into the business, and why should I lose lots of opportunities?”
He claimed Mr Cohen, reportedly co-operating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the Trump campaign’s alleged Russia links, “is lying and trying to get a reduced sentence.”
Mr Trump cancelled plans to meet Mr Putin during the G20 summit in Argentina, after Russia seized Ukraine sailors.
