DAY 219: Donald Trump knew about Trump Tower Moscow proposal during his campaigm

According to ABC, Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, confirmed that Trump did know and even signed the letter of intent for Trump Tower Moscow during the presidential campaign.

From the ABC report in regard to Cohen:

“To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Trump was never in contact with anyone about this proposal other than me on three occasions, including signing a non-binding letter of intent in 2015,” his statement says.

Cohen also makes clear that he himself engaged in communication directly with the Kremlin about the proposal during the ongoing 2016 presidential campaign. His statement says he wrote to the press secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin at the request of Felix Sater, a frequent Trump Organization associate who had proposed the Trump Moscow development.

That is the smoking gun. Trump knew that by siding with Vladimir Putin he could get Trump Tower Moscow built. If Trump lost the election, he would still have a nice business deal with Russia. If he won, the business opportunities with Russia would be even bigger.

This is big enough to be surprised if it does not lead at least to impechment if not to prison.

Oh, and by the way: According to The New York Times, one of Trump's associates bragged that he could get Trump elected president by means of having Putin on his side:

A business associate of President Trump promised in 2015 to engineer a real estate deal with the aid of the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, that he said would help Mr. Trump win the presidency.

...

“Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,” Mr. Sater wrote in an email. “I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”

There's no way around this. Trump must be impeached.