PROOF: Trump Tower Moscow Had Land And Plans — His Lawyer Lied To Hide It (UPDATED)
Newly discovered Russian news reports prove that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen has told a series of bombshell lies to the media.
He claimed to the Washington Post that no land had been chosen for Trump’s Moscow Tower, but years of news reports and press releases say otherwise. In June, The Stern Facts first debunked Cohen’s blanket alibi for his involvement in the Christopher Steele dossier.
The Trump Tower Moscow project that Michael Cohen planned for his then-Republican presidential candidate client— and directly asked for help from the Kremlin to approve — did, in fact, have a site, and was planned adjacent to the Crocus City Hall, right alongside the Myakinino metro station.
Initial plans dated all the way back to 2013 and the Miss Universe Moscow pageant. Development partners the Agalarov family confirmed Crocus City as the Trump Tower site as late as 2015, during the campaign.
Democratic Coalition co-founder Scott Dworkin unearthed a July 3rd, 2015 story in Russia’s state-run TASS news agency during the presidential campaign with one of Trump’s oligarch partners.
Emin Agalarov — who set up with his agent Rob Goldstone, Don Jr.’s infamous meeting with Russian agents for dirt on Hillary Clinton — told TASS reporters that the real estate deal would survive the political campaign (via Google Translate):
“Donald Trump, despite the difficult international political situation, is still interested in this project. We are in the process of negotiations, but due to the fact that Trump is nominated for the presidency, and our plans are constantly being adjusted, it can still change.”
“In case this project is implemented (under the Trump Tower brand), the participation of an American billionaire involves the provision of a brand and technologies for this facility. The investment component of the Crocus Group will be handled independently, "Agalarov added.
Trump had entered the Republican primary campaign two weeks earlier, on June 16th, 2015.
TASS reported that a bank loan of up to $100 million from state-owned Sberbank would be sought for the $170 million Moscow Tower project.
Sberbank sponsored Miss Universe 2013 and announced $2.4 billion in financing for the Trump project with Crocus just days after the pageant concluded, but landed on America’s sanctions list over the Ukraine invasion in March 2014.
UPDATE: Google Street View images show that one of the towers pictured near the cover photo, inside Crocus City’s master planned space began construction on or before June 2015. (image & update notes below)
Kremlin-linked developer Aras Agalarov told Russian media in September 2015 that his son Emin had been in contact with Donald Trump during the primary campaign. Komsomolskaya Pravda reports that Aras Agalarov said (via Google Translate):
“[Trump] is busy with the presidential election campaign. And Emin had seen him recently — there, in America.”
When asked this by KP, “Tell us and now do you have no contacts with Trump?” Agalarov replied, “Principally we have contacts.”
But Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen definitely lied to the news media while spinning the damaging release of emails he sent to the Kremlin asking for help with the project. He told the Washington Post this week that the Trump Moscow project was unable to obtain land:
In a statement to The Post, Cohen described the potential Moscow project as “simply one of many development opportunities that the Trump Organization considered and ultimately rejected.”
Cohen said he abandoned the project because he lost confidence that the Moscow developer would be able to obtain land, financing and government approvals. “It was a building proposal that did not succeed, and nothing more,” he said.
Contrary to the Trump Organization’s bogus spin, the massive development site below was designated, and plans for Trump Tower Moscow were proceeding during the presidential campaign.
Trump also purportedly signed a letter of intent with a Russian building development company on October 28th, 2015, which itself has relations with sanctioned financial companies.
Trump Tower Moscow Started During The 2013 Miss Universe Pageant
During the Miss Universe Moscow pageant in November 2013 the TASS agency and Kommersant both reported that Trump was planning a Russian Tower.
The Agalarovs told Forbes Russia contemporaneously that they wished to develop a tower with Trump, and that he was receptive.
On December 16th, 2013 a Russian media outlet published a story about Donald Trump’s plan with the Crocus Group led by Aras Agalarov to build his thousand unit hotel project, adjacent to the rail-linked Crocus City entertainment complex in the floodplain of the Moscow River.
Agalarov’s Crocus Expo center linked to that news report on the new Trump Tower Moscow the very next day.
Crocus has published photos of the towers which are being built today on the Trump Tower site, and describes their “Residential and Business Complex at Crocus City” like this:
“The successful business strategy of Crocus Group is based on a systemic approach: the creation of a unified residential and business complex will augment the interest of clients and partners of Crocus Group toward the business and commercial centers situated nearby.”
Web page snapshots of the Crocus website in the internet archive depict years worth of changes to the plans for the site announced as Trump Tower Moscow, and currently, includes an extensive photo gallery.
Conclusion
Today, the proposed site of Trump Tower is being developed into a high rise tower complex, though it’s impossible to actually know if the President is involved.
Last November, the Dworkin Report revealed a web of 250 Trump named companies in Russia.
Just tonight, Politico reported that the TrumpTowerMoscow.com domain was renewed in July.
“Once again It’s like pulling teeth to get the full truth from the Trump team,” says the Democratic Coalition’s Dworkin, “And we have no plans turns into we had plans for years.”
“There’s a definition for this: It’s called a lie.”
Here are the photos of Trump’s Moscow tower site and plans:
UPDATE Notes: This story originally contained information from a Mother Jones report that Crocus City obtained a new local zoning approval just days after the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting for dirt on Hillary Clinton was revealed in July 2017. The project indicated is a shopping mall and not a tower project. There is a single tower project known to be on the site and is pictured above as it was presented in the original report.
Read more of The Stern Facts about Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen:
Special thanks to Olga Lautman for Russian language verification and translation.
