Trump White House has secret plan to end Russian sanctions by blackmailing Ukraine president: report

Associates of President Donald Trump have crafted a plan to lift sanctions that were placed on Russia following President Vladimir Putin's aggression against Ukraine.

According to The New York Times, Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, hand-delivered the "peace plan" to the White House, which was being pushed by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign manager Paul D. Manafort. Trump business associate Felix H. Sater and Andrii V. Artemenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker, were said to have helped craft the deal.

“A lot of people will call me a Russian agent, a U.S. agent, a C.I.A. agent,” Artemenko told the Times. “But how can you find a good solution between our countries if we do not talk?”

The plan reportedly includes compromising “names of companies, wire transfers” that would lead to the ousting of Ukraine President Petro O. Poroshenko.

It was not immediately clear if Trump was aware of the plan, but Cohen told the Times that he had not discussed it with the president.

Read the entire report at The New York Times.