also, i quote, there were at least a half dozen times between the iowa caucus in january 2016 and the end of june when mr. trump would ask me, how is it going in russia referring to the russia moscow tower project. how did the president communicate those questions to you? was it verbally or over the phone? >> verbally most of the time. virtually all of the time. it would -- he said say michael -- he was reading to say a rally or to a car as i would walk him to the elevator he would ask me questions quickly regarding a series of issues. >> could you tell what he was referring to in terms of the project in russia? >> no, this would be it. otherwise there would be no reason to ask it of me. >> right. right. you also wrote and i quote, to be clear, mr. trump knew of and directed the trump moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it, closed quote. how did the president actually