start saying nice things about this, you know, kind of distant horse gop hopeful. when we learn in our more recent story that at the same time michael cohen, this long-time ally of donald trump s, is reaching out to extremely high ranking friend of vladimir putin s saying i d like your help. we re stalled. we would like to get this deal done, nudge nudge wink wink we know how it works in russia. you need to go to putin. and said we d like your help. so that s a pretty dramatically different thing than what the president has said which is i have zero interest in russia, zero deals, nothing going on there. when felix seder connects this deal to trump s chances at becoming president, is it clear why he sees those two things connected? he said, wow, this will make him
was aggressively over seeing construction. an intent to proceed with the project october twoif. michael cohen spoke with trump three times directly about the project. michael cohen also wrote directory to the kremlin, to vladimir putin s spokesman to ask for direct kremlin help in restarting discussions about the building project which by then he said was stalled. the other trump organization figure involved in these negotiations is someone we ve talked about before named felix seder. a russian bonn ex-con convicted of a $40 million mafia connected scheme. in 2015 trump in a sworn deposition professed to not be able to recognize felix seder if he had been sitting in that room that day. it s a little hard to believe
here. and what s interesting about the e-mails today, lawrence, is that file ix seder has had a relationship with donald trump going back to about 2002. he wasn t just a broker for the trump organization. he was a principal at bay rock. they developed the trump soho hotel together. felix seder is a career criminal with organized crime ties and the president maintained a relationship with him for over a decade and routinely said in public, i don t know him well. i m distancing myself from him. now with these e-mails, you see the president is not distant from felix seder, and in fact felix seder is the point person on a deal the trump organization is trying to do in moscow. it raises this quid pro quo issue that i think is going to be central to the mueller investigation, going beyond just collusion in the election. it s were there favors sought from the kremlin in return for certain quid pro quos? and people ix seder kept an office in trump tower during some of this period where donal
intend to do in russia. he s said all along, lawrence, no russia, no collusion. and now we have found out there were a lot of russian contacts. there were a lot of efforts to work with the russians and receive information on secretary clinton, and now we know it s not just personal and political relationships. it was also financial dealings. by the way, lawrence, how many americans alive today do you think have sat in the chair of vladimir putin? that shows you how close donald trump was to a president who ordered an attack on our country. and ivanka trump got to do that thanks to the intersession of a career criminal, felix sater, an associate of donald trump s. can we can you stay with us, congressman? we need to squeeze in a quick break here, and we re going to come right back with congressman eric swalwell. we ll be right back.
the times also reports felix seder helped arrange ivanka trump s trip to moscow and that he said, quote, i arranged for ivanka to sit in putin s private chair at his desk and office in the kremlin. joining us now, stephen harper. he s an attorney and author. and adjunct professor at northwestern university. he created the trump/russia timeline. also with us tonight, tim o brien, executive editor of bloomberg view and author of trump nation, the art of being the donald. and, steve, on the timeline, here we have what will be on your timeline, the entry of some new e-mails. this new e-mail discovery that s now been published first by the washington post, then more details by the new york times. and this is a very, very direct communication about getting vladimir putin himself involved in helping donald trump win this election. it s certainly interesting,