Transcript for Trump knew of Moscow tower proposal, lawyer says

The latest on president trump and Russia. New documents reveal he was pursuing a Hodel deal in Moscow while running for president signing a letter of intent and one of his closest aides sought the support of Mr. Putin's right-hand man. Brian Ross has the story. Reporter: Good morning. The revelations come from e-mails turned over to congress Monday by Donald Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, spelling out trump's involvement in trying to get a major real estate deal in Russia. What was going to be the tallest building in the world at the same time he was running for president. Some four months after he began to run for president, dying he had any ties to Russia, Donald Trump secretly signed a letter of intent to build a trump tower skyscraper in Moscow. The letter was signed on October 28th, 2015, according to trump's lawyer. All at the same time the trump was full of praise for Russia and Russian president Vladimir Putin. Including to George Stephanopoulos. Because if we get along well with Russia that's a positive thing, George, not a negative thing. Reporter: The deal for the Moscow project was later abandoned just before the first primaries. Yet trump during the rest of the campaign continued to flatly deny any connection to Russia. I don't deal there. I have no businesses -- I have no loans from Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia. I don't owe mean. I don't have deals in Russia. I don't know Putin. I have nothing to do with Russia. Reporter: But trump failed to mention his lawyer Michael Cohen had actually e-mailed Vladimir Putin's press secretary, in January 2016 asking for government help in negotiating the Moscow deal. The middleman for the Moscow trump tower deal was a convicted felon and one-time FBI informant Felix Seder who was also involved in other trump deals. At the time of the deal trump executives denied to ABC news that Felix had any current role with trump. To say he's a senior adviser to trump would not be accurate. Reporter: Yet Sater was given cards calling him a senior adviser to Donald Trump. Even though under oath in a civil suit trump essentially denied knowing Sater. If he were sitting in the room right now I really wouldn't know what he looked like. Reporter: In e-mails turned over to congress between Sater and trump's lawyer Cohen first reported by "The Washington post," Sater wrote, buddy, our boy can become president of the usa and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin's team to buy in on this. In a statement Cohen's lawyer says he briefed trump about the Russian project three separate times during the campaign but that the project was ultimately abandoned after problems with government approvals and finances. Time after time after time president trump and his campaign denied any contacts with Russia. This was going on. Now we're learning about it from the e-mails. Brian Ross, thanks very much.

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