Trump’s lawyer asked Putin’s spokesman for help on stalled real estate deal

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – A top executive from President Donald Trump’s real estate company asked Vladimir Putin’s personal spokesman to help advance a stalled Trump Tower development project in Moscow, US media reported citing emails and documents submitted to Congress on Monday.

Michael Cohen, a Trump attorney and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, requested the help in a January 2016 email to Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s top press aide, the Washington Post reported.

In the email, Cohen said communications on the deal had stalled and asked Peskov for his personal assistance, the report said.

Cohen sent the email in the same months that then-candidate Trump was praising Putin on the campaign trail.

In a statement to Congressional investigators, Cohen said he wrote the email at the recommendation of Felix Sater, a Russian-American businessman who was acting as a broker for the deal, the Washington Post reported.

Cohen added that he did not recall receiving a response from Peskov and the project was discarded two weeks later, according to the report.

Moreover, Cohen told the Washington Post he abandoned the project because he lost confidence that the Moscow developer involved in the deal would be able to obtain the necessary financing, land and government approvals.

Several committees of Congress are investigating allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election and that members of Trump’s campaign team may have colluded with the Kremlin in that effort.

Trump has rejected accusations of collusion and Russia has repeatedly denied meddling in the vote, insisting that it does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.