Forbes - USA (2019-06-30)

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FORBES.COM JUNE 30, 20 19

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Trump’s payout would have been cut in half.

Communications between the Trumps and the

Agalarovs began to fade in the fall of 2014,

according to the Mueller report. Donald Trump

Jr. later told the Senate Judiciary Committee the

project died because of “deal fatigue.” A more

likely cause of death: U.S. sanctions.

In November 2015, Donald Trump, by then

a presidential candidate, sat down with former

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, who challenged him

over his accommodating stance toward Russia.

“[Putin] doesn’t make deals,” O’Reilly reasoned.

“He just rolls soldiers in to cause destruction and

shoots down airplanes.”

“Well,” Trump replied, “he does what he has to

do.”

Unbeknownst to the American public, the

Trump Organization, which did not respond to

requests for comment on this story, was secretly

communicating about a second potential deal in

Russia around the same time. In September 2015,

nearly a year after the Agalarov partnership

dropped off, and with Trump now leading the

Republican primary race, his lawyer Michael

Cohen traded messages with a man named Giorgi

Rtskhiladze, according to the Mueller report.

Cohen and Rtskhiladze had previously worked

together on business in the former Soviet states

of Georgia and Kazakhstan.

Rtskhiladze sent Cohen a draft of a letter

ultimately intended for the mayor of Moscow,

which pitched a Trump development as a symbol

of strengthening ties between the United States

and Russia, according to the Mueller report.

“[The mayor] is aware of the potential project

and will pledge his support,” the note said,

according to the report.

Today Rtskhiladze says he was just passing

along the message on behalf of a longtime friend

and that friend’s acquaintance. He claims the

letter never made it to the mayor. And he

suggests he’s not even sure if what he sent Cohen

was accurate. “I don’t know if it’s true or not if

[the] mayor’s office was ever notified, okay.”

That’s how it goes in Russia, a place where

trust is in short supply and outsiders can

suddenly find themselves in unnerving situa-

tions. Rtskhiladze says he had previously

warned Cohen of the risks: “You have to be

careful who you get involved with.”

aution, however, is not the

Trump way. Cohen dismissed the

Rtskhiladze plan and chose to

pursue a third proposal, bro-

kered by a man with a checkered

past: Sater. Moscow-born, Brooklyn-bred, Sater

started a career on Wall Street, until a bar

fight—he stabbed a man in the face with a

margarita glass—led to 15 months in prison.

Three years after his release, he pleaded guilty

to racketeering in a mob-connected pump-and-

dump stock scheme. He stayed out of prison this

time by working with the feds, ultimately

supplying information about the Mafia, North

Korea, Russian cybercriminals, even Osama bin

Laden. At Sater’s sentencing, about a decade

after he began cooperating with the government,

FBI agent Leo Taddeo, one of Sater’s handlers at

the bureau, credited him with helping pave the

way for law enforcement to “basically eliminate”

Donald Trump

President of the United States Michael Cohen

Former attorney

Aras

Agalarov

Russian real

estate

billionaire

Emin Agalarov

Moscow-based developer,

pop singer

Ivanka Trump

Advisor to the president

Donald Trump Jr.

Executive vice president of

the Trump Organization

Agreed to

do Moscow

Project with

Father of

Briefly

corresponded

about Russia

deal with

Formerly

represented

by

Attended infamous

Trump Tower

meeting set up by

Father of

Met with

to discuss

possible

Moscow

Project

Father of

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