Trump Org discussed giving Vladimir Putin $50 million penthouse in the Moscow Tower -- during the campaign: report
US President Donald Trump (right) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on November 11, 2017 (AFP Photo/JORGE SILVA)

The Trump Organization discussed giving Russian President Vladimir Putin the $50 million penthouse in Trump Tower Moscow while in talks about the real estate deal -- while Donald Trump was running for president.


Based on discussions with U.S. law enforcement officials, BuzzFeed reported that Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen discussed the plan with a representative for Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

News of the proposal came after Cohen reached a guilty plea with special counsel Robert Mueller, the heart of which regards the scrapped Trump Tower Moscow deal and false statements he made to Congress about it.

In a statement to CNN's Dana Bash, the president's attorney Rudy Giuliani denied that Trump had any knowledge of the proposal.

"The story is a story," he said. "The President never heard of this and the concept never got anywhere beyond an unfunded letter of intent."