From the Chicago Tribune:
While Donald Trump was running for president in late 2015 and early 2016, his company was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow, according to several people familiar with the proposal and new records reviewed by Trump Organization lawyers.
As part of the discussions, a Russian-born real estate developer urged Trump to come to Moscow to tout the proposal and suggested that he could get President Vladimir Putin to say “great things” about Trump, according to several people who have been briefed on his correspondence.
The developer, Felix Sater, predicted in a November 2015 email that he and Trump Organization leaders would soon be celebrating – both one of the biggest residential projects in real estate history and Donald Trump’s election as president, according to two of the people with knowledge of the exchange.
Sater wrote to Trump Organization Executive Vice President Michael Cohen “something to the effect of, ‘Can you believe two guys from Brooklyn are going to elect a president?’ ” said one person briefed on the email exchange. Sater emigrated from what was then the Soviet Union when he was 6 and grew up in Brooklyn.
Trump never went to Moscow as Sater proposed.
…snip…
Nevertheless, the details of the deal, which have not previously been disclosed, provide evidence that Trump’s business was actively pursuing significant commercial interests in Russia at the same time he was campaigning to be president – and in a position to determine U.S.-Russia relations.
…snip…
Trump denied having any business connections to Russia in July 2016, tweeting, “for the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia” and then insisting at a news conference the following day, “I have nothing to do with Russia.”
Discussions about the Moscow project began in earnest in September 2015, according to people briefed on the deal.
…snip…
As the talks progressed, Trump voiced numerous supportive comments about Putin, setting himself apart from his Republican rivals for the nomination.
By the end of 2015, Putin began offering praise in return.
…snip…
Trump’s interests in building in Moscow, however, are long-standing. He had attempted to build a Trump property for three decades, starting with a failed effort in 1987 to partner with the Soviet government on a hotel project.
“Russia is one of the hottest places in the world for investment,” he said in a 2007 court deposition.
“We will be in Moscow at some point,” he promised in the deposition.
Sater was involved in at least one of those previous efforts. In 2005, the Trump Organization gave his development company, the Bayrock Group, an exclusive one-year deal to attempt to build a Moscow Trump Tower. Sater located a site for the project – an abandoned pencil factory – and worked closely with Trump on the deal, which did not come to fruition.
In an unrelated court case in 2008, Sater said in a deposition that he would personally provide Trump “verbal updates” on the deal.
…snip…
In the same testimony, Sater described traveling with Trump’s children, including joining Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. on a trip to Moscow at their father’s request.
…snip…
Trump has repeatedly tried to distance himself from Sater, who served time in jail after assaulting a man with the stem of a broken margarita glass during a 1991 bar fight and then pleaded guilty in 1998 to his role in an organized- crime-linked stock fraud. Sater’s sentencing was delayed for years while he cooperated with the federal government on a series of criminal and national security-related investigations, federal officials have said.
During that time, Sater worked as an executive with Bayrock, whose offices were in Trump Tower, and brokered deals to license Trump’s name for developments in multiple U.S. and foreign cities. In 2010, Trump allowed Sater to briefly work out of Trump Organization office space and use a business card that identified him as a “senior adviser to Donald Trump.”
Still, when asked about Sater in 2013 court deposition, Trump said: “If he were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn’t know what he looked like.” He added that he had spoken with Sater “not many” times.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
Noonie, I am glad that you are back. This post is good one. Of course anyone with a shred of sense could have figured out that Model T. was lying when he said he had no ties with Russia yet he praised Putin to the moon and back. Now, why would anyone in their right mind praise a leader of country that is not an ally unless there were benfits that he was already getting or the he would reap in the future.
Model T. can out lie just about anyone in public office of else where, and that is saying a lot.
It’s good to be back. Here is whom to blame my absence on, my new baby grandniece Kaylani, the littlest Raisinette, who decided to make an early entrance into the world.
They are all up to their necks in rancid borscht. Wonder who will be the first to spill their guts.
kaylani is gorgeous! let’s hope she doesn’t learn to lie like twitler for a very long time.
I suspect that most of the lying she will be doing for some time will be on her back. So far, she appears to be very lazy. She hasn’t even been looking for a job yet.
Congratulations to the new parents with their sweet baby.
I like your name, “rancid beets.” Whose going to sing is another matter. Model T might have paid them and had them all sign a clause prohibiting them from ever talking. As for as Flynn goes- maybe he can sing like a canary but the other lower rung folks- who knows? Bannon will never sing unless he becomes really disillusioned with the T. But he might have signed something something as well. I don’t trust the length that T. has gone to, in order to protect his ego and image.
He flew to Texas today. Went to Corpus that was not hit really hard. Did not fly over Houston. Why not? Didn’t want to look at how bad things are?
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Most officials will wear the cap of people they want to honor during or after a disaster. After 9/11, everyone was wearing NYFD and NYPD caps, and officials were wearing FEMA caps after Katrina. This piece of shit wore a cap that he is currently selling for 40 bucks a pop while his vacuous stilleto-wearing trophy wife wore a FLOTUS cap. I guess she had to remind us who she was since she doesn’t do a fucking thing other than wear designer clothes.
I think Flynn might sing like a canary. Unlike the others, he was in the military, so maybe, just maybe, he has a wisp of patriotism and honor still lurking somewhere in his psyche. He is already disgraced, so maybe he might want to preserve any semblance of humanity he might still lay claim to by doing the right thing and telling what he knows.
MY sentiments about Flynn, Somehow I feel he is different even though he acted like a spy and a traitor but that’s mrely my opinion.
‘Melania T. is a so full of herself she has not a clue about class and character and what being in the white house entails. Yes, 5 inch shoes getting to get on the plane to go see a flood. She changed shoes by the time she got off the plane but really could she not have just worn a pair of boots with the tight pants or some sneakers?
And a cap that T, is selling for $40- I am floored in disbelief. There is no shame to the man or any member of his family.
She is beautiful! Smart too, no doubt.
She lies around all day, takes one nap after another until someone feeds her or bathes her. Smart? She’s brilliant!
Oh shit, I just realized I’m just a few years away from living her life! 😮
A thousand of those vacuum cleaners couldn’t clean up all the rancid borscht — and outright turds — left all over the carpet by Trump and his cronies.
The littlest Raisinette is so cute! I’m sure no one begrudges you some time off for her.
The littlest Raisinette thanks you, Infidel.
I would not want to be the one who has to change those vacuum cleaner bags. Whatever is in them has to be toxic.
I have no patience for Cohen. To put out that he seriously considered if he could continue. Shit or get off the pot, BUCK-A-Roo.
Cohn was going to be my first subject upon my return. He pissed me off to no end. He and Chao flanked a racist asshole as he defended Nazis, and they didn’t say a word. They stood with grins on their faces. Now, we are supposed to believe Cohn was outraged? Bullshit! Instead of standing there like a fucking ballerina (seriously, look at the pics), he should have walked away. Too many people are standing by a moronic bigot and making believe that everything is normal. It is not normal, and to stand by and remain silent is to endorse his hateful views. Cohn’s relatives who died in the Holocaust are waiting for him so they can slap the fucking grin off his face. To think that he stood there and continues to back his piece of shit boss, despite his too-little-too-late hanky-wringing, because he wants to be Fed Chairman, makes it all even more sickening. And don’t even get me started on that fucker Mnuchin!!
I suppose most of you have already seen this story, and the fascinating video about Drumpf’s Russian friends, but it bears sharing. http://www.alternet.org/video/donald-trumps-financial-ties-russian-oligarchs-and-mobsters-detailed-new-documentary
A companion piece video from the same source is also required viewing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvd7PqI_Lx0
Miss Mini-Raisinette is a delicious-looking little morsel. How clever of her to arrive early for the admiration and to profit from cozy naps – that time is precious in the short span of babyhood.
Oh my, what do I call you? Chezmoi or Malinda? CM or MC? I’m so confoozled!!
I never saw that video before. I just watched the beginning and will watch the rest later. I think Malcolm Nance needs his own show. He’s so smart and so interesting. Robert Reich has a number of excellent videos at YouTube and on Twitter. I wish I could figure out how to embed tweets here.
The Littlest Raisinette has it made. If I could find someone to clean up after me while all I do is sleep, eat and poop all day, I would be so happy.
Ooops, yes, I wasn’t thinking, and outed myself! No matter, I’m still chezmoi, and not famous enough to be recognized otherwise.
Nance would be a fine addition to any news lineup – maybe tucked in not far from Rachel? And I love Reich’s videos, especially when he does his little drawings to drive home the point.
I’ve done that more than once, and yet the paparazzi still have not knocked at my door.
I watched those videos you linked to, and there is plenty to scratch one’s head over. I am hoping the states can prosecute the gangsters in the White House, safe from any pardons from the gangster-in-chief.