Trumps Russian Deals during his 2016 Campaign

Trump and His Involvement with Russia

President Trump and his involvement with Russia have been in the news since before he became the leader of the free world. The President of the United States was a business man before he became a politician and had business deals all over the world; one of which was potentially in Moscow, Russia. When President Trump was on the presidential campaign he was looking into building a hotel in Russia. He offered Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, a 50 million dollar penthouse in a skyscraper to bring in more revenue and a higher class customer.

According to Trump the thought of building in Russia did not last very long. In January of 2016 is when The President claimed the deal was no longer on the table. Although a filing claims that the discussions of the deal lasted through June of 2016, right after he won the Republican Primary. In July of 2016, President Trump made a definitive statement saying he had no ties with Russia.

Michael Cohen, who is the former personal attorney of President Trump, pled guilty to lying to Congress about the Moscow hotel deal. President Trump claims that Cohen was lying under oath to get a shorter prison sentence and also called him a “weak person” for not telling the truth and folding to protect himself. The President’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani has commented as well slamming the media’s coverage of Cohen’s plea. Giuliani states that the media is overplaying the coverage and putting more importance of the plea that there needs to be. He claims that Mueller, who is a leader the investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia, pursued charges on Cohen for lying to Congress because he cannot find any information in his investigation.

President Trump claims that he did nothing illegal because the potential deal was under consideration during the campaign trail and not while Trump was President or President-Elect. He also claims that not considering the deal with Russia because of the Presidential Campaign would be a bad business move. At that time on the campaign trail, Trump had a very low chance of winning. If he would have lost the campaign, he would go back to being a businessman and need to have those deals on the table. President Trump believes that this investigation into his ties with Russia is a “witch hunt” and they will ultimately come up empty.

No one knows who is telling the truth yet, because there is not enough information. The only thing we seem to have is the word of each side and how much someone believes them. Maybe over time, the truth will come out and this will all be put to an end.