rump Jr.'s 2017 Testimony Conflicts With Cohen's Account Of Russian Talks
November 30, 201810:56 AM ET
Philip Ewing
Updated at 11:14 a.m. ET
Donald Trump Jr.'s testimony to Congress about his family's real estate negotiations with powerful Russians does not comport with the new version laid out by Donald Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen, official transcripts show.
Trump Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017 that although there had been negotiations surrounding a prospective Trump Tower in Moscow, they concluded without result "at the end" of 2014.
"But not in 2015 or 2016?" Trump Jr. was asked.
"Certainly not '16," he said. "There was never a definitive end to it. It just died of deal fatigue."
Trump's account contrasts with the new version of events given by Cohen on Thursday in a guilty plea in federal court. In that new version, Cohen says the discussions with at least one Russian government official and others in Moscow continued through June 2016, well into Trump's presidential campaign.
Cohen initially told Congress he reached out to a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin and didn't hear back. On Thursday, his guilty plea acknowledged that he had heard back and that other negotiations with other Russians went forward.
Trump Jr. told the Senate committee last year that he was "peripherally aware" of these discussions but that he didn't know that Cohen had sent an email to the Putin aide, Dmitry Peskov.
Cohen said in his guilty plea that he had briefed Trump's family members about his talks, although the court documents don't specify which ones.
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https://www.npr.org/2018/11/30/672188201/trump-jr-s-2017-testimony-conflicts-with-cohen-s-account-of-russian-talks
