U.S. Department of Justice
Attorney Work Product // May Contain Material Protected Under Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)
Cohen that there was "no bigger warranty in any project than [the] consent of the person of interest."[1] Cohen rejected the proposal, saying that "[c]urrently our LOI developer is in talks with VP's Chief of Staff and arranging a formal invite for the two to meet."[2] This email appears to be their final exchange, and the investigation did not identify evidence that Cohen brought Klokov's initial offer of assistance to the Campaign's attention or that anyone associated with the Trump Organization or the Campaign dealt with Klokov at a later date. Cohen explained that he did not pursue the proposed meeting because he was already working on the Moscow Project with Sater, who Cohen understood to have his own connections to the Russian government."[3]
By late December 2015, however, Cohen was complaining that Sater had not been able to use those connections to set up the promised meeting with Russian government officials. Cohen told Sater that he was "setting up the meeting myself."[4] On January 11, 2016, Cohen emailed the office of Dmitry Peskov, the Russian government's press secretary, indicating that he desired contact with Sergei Ivanov, Putin's chief of staff. Cohen erroneously used the email address "Pr_peskoya@prpress.gof.ru" instead of "Pr_peskova@prpress.gov.ru," so the email apparently did not go through.[5] On January 14, 2016, Cohen emailed a different address (info@prpress.gov.ru) with the following message:
- Dear Mr. Peskov,
- Over the past few months, I have been working with a company based in Russia regarding the development of a Trump Tower-Moscow project in Moscow City.
- Without getting into lengthy specifics, the communication between our two sides has stalled. As this project is too important, I am hereby requesting your assistance.
- I respectfully request someone, preferably you; contact me so that | might discuss the specifics as well as arranging meetings with the appropriate individuals.
- I thank you in advance for your assistance and look forward to hearing from you soon.[6]
Two days later, Cohen sent an email to Pr_peskova@prpress.goy.ru, repeating his request to speak with Sergei Ivanov.[7]
Cohen testified to Congress, and initially told the Office, that he did not recall receiving a response to this email inquiry and that he decided to terminate any further work on the Trump Moscow project as of January 2016. Cohen later admitted that these statements were false. In
- ↑ 11/19/15 Email, Klokov to Cohen (7:40 a.m.),
- ↑ 11/19/15 Email, Cohen to Klokov (12:56 p.m.).
- ↑ Cohen 9/18/18 302, at 12.
- ↑ FS00004 (12/30/15 Text Message, Cohen to Sater (6:17 p.m.))
- ↑ 1/11/16 Email, Cohen to pr_peskova@prpress.gof.ru (9:12 a.m.).
- ↑ 1/14/16 Email, Cohen to info@prpress.gov.ru (9:21 a.m.).
- ↑ 1/16/16 Email, Cohen to pr_peskova@prpress.gov.ru (10:28 a.m.).
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