Leaked document signed by Trump contradicts Giuliani on Trump Tower Moscow plans, CNN claims

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Leaked document signed by Trump contradicts Giuliani on Trump Tower Moscow plans, CNN claims

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  • President Trump signed a "letter of intent" outlining plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to CNN.
  • The network produced what it says is a copy of the document, signed by Trump.
  • It appears to contradict Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who said on Sunday that "no one signed" the letter to Russian company IC Expert Investment Company.
  • It comes after Giuliani said Trump and Michael Cohen may have been discussing a tower in Moscow as late as November 2016.
  • Trump's 2016 election campaign finances are still under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller.
  • Trump denied pursuing business with Russia during his candidacy. More recently he has acknowledged the talks, which he says were "very legal!"

A leaked business document bearing President Trump's signature shows that his lawyer Rudy Giuliani lied about Trump's plans for a Tower in Moscow on Sunday, according to CNN.

Chris Cuomo, a host on the network, on Thursday produced what he said was a "letter of intent" setting out a potential deal to explore the project between Trump Acquisition LLC and the Moscow-based IC Expert Investment Company, Moscow.

Cuomo held up the document during his show, "Cuomo Prime Time," on Thursday evening. The document is dated October 28, 2015, several months after Trump announced his candidacy.

On Sunday, Trump's lawyer Giuliani told CNN's Dana Bush that Trump never got as far as signing that letter. According to CNN, their document shows that Giuliani was not telling the truth.

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On Sunday Giuliani mentioned the letter while talking about the would-be Trump Tower Moscow, a project which was ultimately abandoned.

He said: "It was a real estate project. There was a letter of intent to go forward, but no one signed it."

Giuliani was expanding on Trump's written answers to special counsel Robert Mueller - who is investigating the president's campaign financing.

Trump did not make the plans public while he was running for office. Later he admitted that the talks took place, but said in a tweet that the talks were "very legal!"

Read more: Giuliani suggests it's fine for Trump to change his story on campaign-finance felony allegations because he's not under oath

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Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen has also said that Trump was told about the proposal from the Russian IC Expert Investment Company outlined in CNN's letter.

Giuliani suggested on Sunday that Trump and Cohen had spoken about the deal as far along as November 2016.

"Up until November 2016, they [Trump and Cohen] could have had a conversation about Trump Tower Moscow, and it went nowhere," Giuliani told CNN.

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Cohen pleaded guilty on November 29 to lying to Congress about his role in a plan to build a Trump Tower in Russia. He had claimed that the plan was scrapped in January 2016, but since changed this account, and said that the idea was in fact kept alive until November 2016.

During that period, Trump went from a political outlier to the official Republican nominee. During November he won the presidency.

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The plans for the building, laid out in the letter produced by CNN, include "250 luxury residential condominiums," a "first class, luxury hotel" spread over 15 floors, and office space of "Class A quality."

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The IC Expert Investment Company were to be the licensee of the project; able to develop it and use the "Trump" brand name, the document said.

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