Cohen Determines to Adhere to a "Party Line" Distancing Candidate Trump From Russia

¶As previously discussed, see Volume II, Section II.A, supra, when questions about possible Russian support for candidate Trump emerged during the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump denied having any personal, financial, or business connection to Russia, which Cohen described as the "party line" or "message" to follow for Trump and his senior advisors.⁹⁴⁴⁹⁴⁴ Cohen 11/20/18 302, at 1; Cohen 9/18/18 302, at 3, 5; Cohen 9/12/18 302, at 9.

¶After the election, the Trump Organization sought to formally close out certain deals in advance of the inauguration.⁹⁴⁵⁹⁴⁵ Cohen 9/18/18 302, at 1-2; see also Rtskhiladze 4/4/18 302, at 8-9. Cohen recalled that Trump Tower Moscow was on the list of deals to be closed out.⁹⁴⁶⁹⁴⁶ Cohen 9/18/18 302, at 1-2. In approximately January 2017, Cohen began receiving inquiries from the media about Trump Tower Moscow, and he recalled speaking to the President-Elect when those inquiries came in.⁹⁴⁷⁹⁴⁷ Cohen 9/18/18 302, at 3. Cohen was concerned that truthful answers about the Trump Tower Moscow project might not be consistent with the "message" that the President-Elect had no relationship with Russia.⁹⁴⁸⁹⁴⁸ Cohen 11/20/18 302, at 4.

¶In an effort to "stay on message," Cohen told a New York Times reporter that the Trump Tower Moscow deal was not feasible and had ended in January 2016.⁹⁴⁹⁹⁴⁹ Cohen 9/18/18 302, at 5. The article was published on February 19, 2017, and reported that Sater and Cohen had been working on plan for a Trump Tower Moscow "as recently as the fall of 2015" but had come to a halt because of the presidential campaign. Consistent with Cohen's intended party line message, the article stated, "Cohen said the Trump Organization had received a letter of intent for a project in Moscow from a Russian real estate developer at that time but determined that the project was not feasible." Megan Twohey & Scott Shane, A Back-Channel Plan for Ukraine and Russia, Courtesy of Trump Associates, New York Times (Feb. 19, 2017).Show full note Cohen recalled that this was part of a "script" or talking points he had developed with President-Elect Trump and others to dismiss the idea of a substantial connection between Trump and Russia.⁹⁵⁰⁹⁵⁰ Cohen 9/18/18 302, at 5-6. Cohen said that he discussed the talking points with Trump but that he did not explicitly tell Trump he thought they were untrue because Trump already knew they were untrue.⁹⁵¹⁹⁵¹ Cohen 9/18/18 302, at 6. Cohen thought it was important to say the deal was done in January 2016, rather than acknowledge that talks continued in May and June 2016, because it limited the period when candidate Trump could be alleged to have a relationship with Russia to an early point in the campaign, before Trump had become the party's presumptive nominee.⁹⁵²⁹⁵² Cohen 9/12/18 302, at 10.

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