House Intel panel to hold public Russia probe hearing with Trump pal Felix Sater next week

The U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee said on Thursday it will hold an open hearing and an interview with Felix Sater, a Russian-born former business associate of President Donald Trump, next week as part of its Russia investigation.

The open hearing next Thursday will focus on the Kremlin’s use of money, oligarchs and intelligence in the 2016 presidential race. Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul is scheduled to testify, it said.

The interview with Sater, which had been postponed last month, is scheduled to go ahead on Wednesday, the committee said.

Sater, a property developer who worked with Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen on the Moscow project while Trump was running for president, had originally been scheduled to testify publicly before the committee on March 14.

Sater is expected to testify about his work on the Moscow project, which came under renewed scrutiny after Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress about when negotiations on the deal ended in order to minimize Trump’s links to Russia.

The committee’s Democratic chairman, Adam Schiff, has said the panel is focusing on the Trump tower negotiations.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Trott)