Trump associate 'arranged for Ivanka to sit in Putin's private chair' during 2015 Moscow trip
Emails show Felix Sater bragged to the Trump Organisation about his influence in Russia
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Your support makes all the difference.One of Donald Trump’s former business partners has claimed he arranged for the President's oldest daughter to sit in Vladimir Putin’s private chair during a 2006 trip to Russia.
The claim comes from Felix Sater, a one-time broker for the Trump Organisation, who pushed heavily for Mr Trump to open a Trump Tower Moscow in 2015.
In an email to Mr Trump’s lawyer about the project, Mr Sater brags about his influence in Moscow, writing: "I arranged for Ivanka to sit in Putins private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin.”
Ms Trump told the New York Times it is “possible” she sat in the Russian President’s chair, though she said she did not recall it. She added that she had never met Mr Putin, and had no involvement in the Moscow tower discussions other than to recommend possible architects.
The emails, however, point to a larger area of concern: Mr Trump’s business dealings with Russia during the presidential campaign. Though the Trump Tower project never got off the ground, Mr Trump did sign a non-binding “letter of intent” for pursuing it.
More concerningly, Mr Slater bragged in his emails – some of which were obtained by the Times – that he could “get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected”.
“Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,” he wrote. “I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”
Mr Sater, a Russian immigrant and former FBI informant, also claimed he had secured financing for the project via VTB Bank – a Russian bank that was under American sanctions at the time.
It is plausible that Mr Sater overstated his influence in Russia in order to improve the project’s prospects. In one instance, the Times reports, Mr Trump’s lawyer emailed Mr. Putin’s spokesman about the project, but used a general inquiries mailbox. The incident suggests the Trump team did not have a personal line to the Kremlin, as Mr Sater seemed to boast.
Mr Trump’s possible ties to Russia are currently being investigated by committees in both the House and Senate, and by the Department of Justice. The emails in question were turned over to the House Intelligence Committee by the Trump Organisation on Monday.
“To be clear, the Trump Organization has never had any real estate holdings or interests in Russia,” the Trump Organization said Monday in a statement.
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