Chairman Adam Schiff's House Intelligence Committee will subpoena a former Trump associate after he did not show up for an interview with the committee. | J. Scott Applewhite/Adam Schiff Congress House Intel subpoenas Felix Sater after he fails to appear for testimony

The House Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena to Felix Sater, a former business associate of President Donald Trump who was the chief negotiator for the defunct Trump Tower Moscow project, after he failed to appear for a voluntary interview Friday morning.

Sater told POLITICO that the interview is “being rescheduled.” Sater expressed frustration on Friday about how the committee handled the situation.


He said he was feeling ill and slept through his alarm on Friday morning, causing him to miss his scheduled appearance before the committee. His attorney, Robert Wolf, was already in Washington for the planned interview, Sater said.

But a committee aide appeared to dispute Sater’s account.

“Neither Sater nor his attorney advised the committee of his unexpected absence until moments before the interview was set to begin, and the committee is still not aware of any health reasons for his absence,” the aide said.

“In addition, Sater did not provide the committee with some requested documents in his possession prior to this morning’s interview, as repeatedly requested by committee staff,” the committee added. “For both of these reasons, the committee had no choice but to issue a subpoena for documents and testimony from Mr. Sater.”

Wolf maintained in a statement that Sater couldn't attend Friday's interview due to “unexpected health reasons” and said Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s decision to issue a subpoena is “entirely unnecessary.”

“Mr. Sater voluntarily testified before the House Intelligence Committee in December 2017 and agreed to their more recent requests to voluntarily appear on numerous other dates, including Chairman Schiff’s request for public testimony on April 10, 2019, all of which were postponed by the committee,” Wolf said.

Sater was initially scheduled to testify before the panel in March, but the completion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation prompted Schiff to postpone the interview.

The Trump Tower Moscow project has been a central focus of the Democrat-led committee’s investigation into whether Trump is compromised by foreign actors.

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Trump did not disclose the ongoing Trump Tower Moscow negotiations while he was running for president in 2015 and 2016, and repeatedly claimed during the campaign that he has “nothing to do with Russia.” His former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, is serving a three-year prison sentence in part for lying to the Intelligence Committee about the timing of those negotiations.

Democrats said Sater’s testimony is critical to their understanding of Trump’s ties to Russia.

“Mr. Sater helped spearhead President Trump's efforts to build a ‘Trump Tower’ in Moscow, including attempts to reach out to Vladimir Putin. He must come testify,” said Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), a member of the Intelligence Committee.

Darren Samuelsohn contributed to this story.

