Cohen’s Plea Suggests Russians Held ‘Kompromat’ on Trump
- Kremlin knew of real-estate bid as Cohen publicy downplayed it
- Moscow tower bid was active until mid-2016, Cohen now says
Michael Cohen’s latest guilty plea revealed a closely guarded Trump business secret. But in a deeply uncomfortable turn for President Donald Trump, one of the people in the know was an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Thursday’s dramatic turn of events is problematic for Trump because it suggests the Kremlin knew something that people around Trump were working hard to hold close -- that Trump was moving forward with a Moscow business deal at the same time he was deep in the race for the U.S. presidency. Any undisclosed foreign arrangements would raise red flags about candidates for national office, making them vulnerable to blackmail by others privy to those secrets. Russians call such nuggets of damaging information “kompromat,” a concept that’s become familiar enough to enter the international lexicon.