A leaked 2015 letter shows that Donald Trump signed off on the intent to begin negotiations over building a Trump Tower in Moscow, days after the president’s lawyer claimed on TV that no such signature exists.

The letter of intent, obtained by CNN, was signed by the then-presidential candidate on October 28, 2015, around the same time that Trump began to speak positively about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The deal, which was eventually scrapped, would have opened up negotiations over Trump properties in the heart of Moscow, and included a hotel spa named after the president’s daughter, Ivanka. It would also have yielded the Trump administration a $4 million upfront fee with no upfront costs.

On Sunday, Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lawyer, admitted that the letter existed, but firmly maintained that “no one signed it.” Mere days later, however, Giuliani backtracked, telling the Daily News that Trump had actually signed the letter, but that it didn’t matter because it was “bullshit” and the letter didn’t go anywhere.


Trump has repeatedly claimed that he had nothing to do with any sort of investments in Russia, making 14 statements in between July 2016 and November 2018 in which he denied any involvement. “I have nothing to do with Russia,” he said during a July 2016 press conference. “How many times do I have to say that?” Prior to his inauguration in January 2017, he said “I have no deals, I have no loans and I have no dealings [with Russia].”

That line of defense, however, changed after the president’s longtime lawyer and confidant Michael Cohen was sentenced last week to 36 months in prison. He was also sentenced to two months for lying to investigators about the proposed Trump Tower Moscow project.

Cohen has also cooperated extensively with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged collusion, where he has claimed that he made Donald Trump personally aware of the project.

“Michael had a lengthy substantive conversation with the personal assistant to a Kremlin official following his outreach in January 2016, engaged in additional communications concerning the project as late as June 2016, and kept Client-1 [Donald Trump] apprised of these communications,” the memorandum filed in court on November 30 reads.


Cohen’s admissions, and the memorandum, have forced Trump to change tactics. The same day that the memorandum was filed, Trump tweeted that he had, in fact, “lightly looked” at a building “somewhere in Russia” which was all “very legal & very cool.”

Oh, I get it! I am a very good developer, happily living my life, when I see our Country going in the wrong direction (to put it mildly). Against all odds, I decide to run for President & continue to run my business-very legal & very cool, talked about it on the campaign trail… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2018

….Lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in Russia. Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn’t do the project. Witch Hunt! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2018

“We had a position to possibly do a deal, to build a building of some kind in Moscow,” Trump told reporters prior to travelling to the G20 summit in Argentina last month. “There would be nothing wrong if I did do it. I was running my business while I was campaigning.”