There's no evidence at hand that this cultivation took place, however. The dossier claims a carrot-and-stick approach to keeping Trump in line, with the carrot being those real estate deals and the stick being the "salacious" event. Subsequent reporting, though, indicates that Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen (whose name will come up again) emailed Putin aide Dmitry Peskov (whose name will also come up again) in January of 2016 to ask for help in advancing a project in the capital. The deal collapsed - undercutting the idea that six months later Russia would have claimed to be trying to bolster Trump's efforts in the city.