From CNN:
Washington (CNN) - The revelation that President Donald Trump's attorney reached out to the Kremlin for assistance in building a Trump Tower in Moscow well into Trump's presidential campaign show that the then-candidate misled the public about whether he had business interests in Russia, California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said Sunday.
"The President was dishonest when he said during the campaign that he had no business in Russia, was pursuing no business in Russia," Schiff told Dana Bash on CNN's "State of the Union." He added that the proposed project or any others like it could have spurred the Trump campaign to take a more favorable stance toward Moscow.
"If they were pursuing business in Russia during the campaign, that might have influenced the positions that the candidate took in a more pro-Russian direction," Schiff said. "After all, if they were going to be criticizing Putin, criticizing Russia, that would diminish the chances that this deal would go through."
Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has told CNN that he emailed a top aide of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, about the proposed building, saying the message "went unanswered" and "was solely regarding a real estate deal and nothing more." Cohen also said he contacted Peskov after it was suggested that the proposal would require approval by the Russian government, but that approval was never provided.
Cohen added that he discussed the proposal with Trump three times, saying he "never considered asking Mr. Trump to travel to Russia in connection with this proposal" and did not brief on him on his decision to terminate the development.
Trump has denied any financial connection to Russia, which US intelligence agencies allege meddled in the 2016 election in an effort to help Trump win. Lawyers for Trump have said the President's tax returns showed few dealings with Russia, although Trump has refused to release his tax returns.
Schiff, the top Democrat involved in the House investigation into Russia's efforts to influence last year's election, characterized the news about Cohen's efforts on the potential Moscow project as "yet another" misleading statement from the Trump administration about Russia.
He said the House intelligence committee, of which he is the ranking member, would likely question Cohen and Russian-born developer Felix Sater, who communicated with Cohen about the proposal. The Democratic congressman noted the committee had already subpoenaed Cohen for documents.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Schiff's remarks.
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