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Showing Original Post only (View all)Report: Trump's lawyer hand-delivered Michael Flynn a secret plan to lift sanctions on Russia [View all]
Source: Business Insider
Trump Organization lawyer Michel Cohen hand-delivered a "peace" plan for Russia and Ukraine to former national security adviser Michael Flynn before Flynn was asked to resign, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
The plan, which involved lifting sanctions on Russia, was drafted by Cohen a close confidante of President Donald Trump who has served as his organization's special counsel since 2007 and Felix Sater, a Russian-American real estate developer who has helped the Trump Organization scout deals in Russia.
Sater, a businessman formerly linked with the Mafia who has boasted of his "relationship with Trump," told the Washington Post last May that he "handled all of the negotiations" for the Trump Organization's dealings in Russia in the mid-2000's.
Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii V. Artemenko, who met with Trump's campaign team during the election, was also involved in drafting the proposal. Artemenko told the Times he had evidence of Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko's corruption that could lead to his ouster.
Poroshenko has been locked in a war with pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine since he took power in 2014, and is considered more friendly to the West than his ousted predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych's political rise was heavily aided by former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
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Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-lawyer-delivered-michael-flynn-plan-to-lift-sanctions-on-russia-2017-2
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I don't know how much attention it's received. But the appearance of the name of Felix Sater in this new article in the Times is one of the biggest shoes I've seen drop on the Trump story in some time.
The new story explains that a group of Trump operatives, including top lawyer Michael Cohen and fired former campaign manager Paul Manafort, along with a pro-Putin Ukrainian parliamentarian named Andrii V. Artemenko and Mr. Sater are pushing President Trump on a 'peace plan' for Russia and Ukraine.
Cohen recently met with Sater and Artemenko; and Cohen agreed to personally deliver the peace plan (actually a sealed envelope with documents detailing it) to the President when he met with him at the White House. Cohen says he left it with General Flynn days before Flynn was forced to resign.
The backstory to all this is amazingly byzantine and murky. Let me try to cover the key points as simply as I can.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-big-shoe-just-dropped
A week before Michael T. Flynn resigned as national security adviser, a sealed proposal was hand-delivered to his office, outlining a way for President Trump to lift sanctions against Russia.
Mr. Flynn is gone, having been caught lying about his own discussion of sanctions with the Russian ambassador. But the proposal, a peace plan for Ukraine and Russia, remains, along with those pushing it: Michael D. Cohen, the presidents personal lawyer, who delivered the document; Felix H. Sater, a business associate who helped Mr. Trump scout deals in Russia; and a Ukrainian lawmaker trying to rise in a political opposition movement shaped in part by Mr. Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort.
At a time when Mr. Trumps ties to Russia, and the people connected to him, are under heightened scrutiny with investigations by American intelligence agencies, the F.B.I. and Congress some of his associates remain willing and eager to wade into Russia-related efforts behind the scenes.
Mr. Trump has confounded Democrats and Republicans alike with his repeated praise for the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, and his desire to forge an American-Russian alliance. While there is nothing illegal about such unofficial efforts, a proposal that seems to tip toward Russian interests may set off alarms.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-russia.html