The Kremlin said on Wednesday that an email it had received from an adviser to then U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump in January 2016 about a Moscow real estate project had made no mention of Trump’s personal interest in the project.
The Kremlin was speaking before Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, testifies before a House of Representatives committee.
Cohen is due to tell Congress that Trump directed negotiations for the real estate project in Moscow even as he campaigned for the presidency and publicly stated he had no business interests in Russia, according to a draft of Cohen’s planned testimony.
Cohen emailed the Kremlin in January 2016, seeking its help in advancing the stalled Trump Tower development project in Moscow.
The Kremlin has previously confirmed receiving the email, but said it neither replied nor discussed the matter with President Vladimir Putin.
Asked on Wednesday by reporters if Cohen had mentioned in the same email that Trump was personally interested in the tower deal happening, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:
“No, no. That was never mentioned. On the contrary, the email was about how the project was not working out.”