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by Causes | 11.30.18

What’s the story?

The Trump Organization’s reported plan to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a penthouse worth $50 million in Trump Tower Moscow will be investigated by the House Intelligence Committee when they take control of it in 2019.

“If true, this story further underscores the need to finish the Committee’s counterintelligence investigation to determine what, if any, financial leverage the Russians may hold over President Trump and the Trump Organization, and what Trump may have hoped to gain by any financial offer to Putin,” Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement to BuzzFeed News.

BuzzFeed originally broke the story about the alleged penthouse offer just hours after Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the now-defunct Trump Tower project in Moscow.

What are both sides saying?

“The Committee looks forward to inviting Mr. Cohen back to help answer these and many other outstanding questions,” Schiff said.
Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democratic member of the committee, shared Schiff’s views, telling BuzzFeed:

“As a member of the committee, I would strongly urge us to bring in everybody associated with this deal and figure out what was offered, who it was offered to, and who knew about it.”

Castro added that plan could have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. “If this was an attempt to speed up the project or secure the project and make sure it got done, it could amount to bribery for an official of a foreign government and anyone who was part of that could be in violation of this federal statute.”
Trump has defended his Moscow project as business as usual, writing on twitter Friday morning:

What do you think?

Should the House Intelligence Committee look into the Trump Tower Moscow project? Or was it “very legal and very cool” for Trump to do this kind of business during the campaign? Take action above, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

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