- The “peace” plan involved lifting sanctions on Russia and was drafted by Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen and Felix Sater, a Russian-American property developer. Pro-Russia Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii V. Artemenko was also involved. Cohen was named last month in the unverified Russia-Trump dossier compiled by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele as part of the “ongoing secret liaison relationship between the New York tycoon’s campaign and the Russian leadership.”
Trump Organization lawyer Michel Cohen hand-delivered a “peace” plan for Russia and Ukraine to former national security adviser Michael Flynn before Flynn was asked to resign, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
The plan involved lifting sanctions on Russia in return for Moscow withdrawing its support for pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine. It would also allow Russia to maintain control over Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
The proposal was drafted by Cohen – a close confidante of President Donald Trump who has served as his organization’s special counsel since 2007, and now serves as Trump’s personal lawyer – and Felix Sater, a Russian-American real estate developer who has helped the Trump Organization scout deals in Russia.
Sater, a businessman formerly linked with the Mafia who has boasted of his “relationship with Trump,” told the Washington Post last May that he “handled all of the negotiations” for the Trump Organization’s dealings in Russia in the mid-2000’s.
Trump has distanced himself from Sater, insisting in sworn testimony as part of a 2013 lawsuit that "if [Sater] were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn't know what he looked like."
Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii V. Artemenko, who met with Trump's campaign team during the election, was also involved in drafting the proposal. Artemenko told the Times he had evidence of Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko's corruption that could lead to his ouster.
Poroshenko has been locked in a war with pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine since he took power in 2014, and is considered more friendly to the West than his ousted predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych's political rise was heavily aided by former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Cohen, Sater, and Artemenko met in a hotel lobby on Park Avenue in Manhattan in late January to draw up the proposal, the Times said, which Cohen claimed was aimed at "bringing about peace" between Ukraine and Russia.
Violence flared up in eastern Ukraine last month between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russia separatists, in what amounted to the worst fighting in nearly a year.
Conflicting statements
Shortly after the Times published its story about the meeting, Cohen told The Washington Post that while he did meet with Sater and Artemenko to draft the plan, he never delivered it to Flynn.
"I acknowledge that the brief meeting took place, but emphatically deny discussing this topic or delivering any documents to the White House and/or General Flynn," Cohen said.
The Times stood by its story, however, saying that Cohen "told The Times in no uncertain terms that he delivered the Ukraine proposal to Michael Flynn's office at the White House. Mr. Sater told the Times that Mr. Cohen had told him the same thing."
Cohen told the Times that he had not discussed the plan with Trump directly, and was waiting to see how Trump's new national security adviser - who has yet to be named - will address it. Trump has suggested he would be open to lifting sanctions on Russia if Moscow proved a useful ally in fighting terrorism.
"If you get along and if Russia is really helping us," Trump told the Wall Street Journal last month, "why would anybody have sanctions if somebody's doing some really great things?"
Cohen as a 'liaison'
Cohen, Trump's lawyer, was named in the explosive, unsubstantiated dossier presented by top US intelligence officials to Trump and senior lawmakers last month that has increased scrutiny of his presidential campaign's ties to Russia.
The memos, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele for an opposition research firm in Washington, DC, said that Cohen was part of the "ongoing secret liaison relationship between the New York tycoon's campaign and the Russian leadership," and that he met secretly with Kremlin officials in Prague in August 2016.
Cohen, whose wife is Ukrainian, insisted shortly after the dossier was published that he was in California at the time of the alleged meeting, and that he had never been to Prague.
The FBI is currently reviewing the allegations made in the dossier, and is pursuing three separate investigations into Russian hacking that targeted prominent Democrats during the US election. The intelligence community is also examining phone calls made between Trump associates and Russian officials throughout the campaign.
