Since Trump has been elected as president of the United States of America, there have been several controversies revolving around him. From the moment he became the president there has been constant protests and allegations against his unfair and sexist ways. And just like that, we found the president under the bus once again.
As reported by BuzzFeed News, the Trump organization was all set to give Vladimir Putin – the President of Russia, a $50 million penthouse in the Trump Tower Moscow. Apparently, it was a marketing strategy to sell other apartments of the Trump Tower Moscow – as the oligarchs wouldn’t miss the golden opportunity of living in the same building as Putin.
Now, we are all aware of the election controversies where Trump was said to have the support of the Russian mafia. When BuzzFeed reported this ‘marketing’ step of the Trump Organization, the speculations intensified, and many people now believe that Trump is involved with the Russian Mafia, leading to an uproar.
However, there have been no solid proofs of the President knowing this move. The president’s former lawyer and confident Michael Cohen and Trump’s longtime associate Felix Sater – a Russian born developer, were found guilty of the deal and been accused of having ties with the Russian Mafia in the past as well.
Felix Sater explained the whole thing as just a marketing strategy as Putin’s supporters would die to get a place in the same building as him. According to BuzzFeed, he stated: “In Russia, the oligarchs would bend over backward to live in the same building as Vladimir Putin. 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.”
Felix Sater has always been in the news for his unruly behavior. In 1991 he was imprisoned under a case of stabbing a man. And there have been several disturbing cases following that incident. So, it wouldn’t be hard to believe that he would give a $50 million penthouse to the Russia’s president for marketing purposes.
When BuzzFeed asked him about this, he said “It seemed like a great idea at the time,” and also stated that Cohen agreed to that. When the news agency went to speak with Lany Davis – Cohen’s attorney, he refused to comment. So this leaves us in uncertain waters about Cohen’s exact involvement in the project.
The news agency also went to Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s current attorney. Giuliani said that it was “too premature for anything like that” and added that the idea of giving Putin an apartment was just plain ‘crazy’.
Robert Mueller, who has been investigating Russian intervention in the 2016 elections, has assigned a special counsel to investigate the matter. Until the investigation furthers, people are still trying to connect the dots, and there have been many accusations doing the rounds about Trump having knowledge of the deal.
Cohen was found guilty of setting up a deal in Russia and lying to Congress about it, all in the name of cleaning the president’s name. Prosecutors claimed that Cohen lied about the dealing of the tower and minimized the communication between the Moscow Project and Trump to hide the state of the project.
It is also reported that Cohen told Trump that the project ended in January 2016 when in truth, the dealings continued for a long period after that.
With Cohen being found guilty, Congress has cleared Trump’s name in the controversy. However, nothing more can be said on the matter until further investigation takes place.