Trump just tweeted: I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!

[highplainsdem]

8. ABC News, Sept 2016: From Russia With Trump: A Political Conflict Zone

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russia-trump-political-conflict-zone/story?id=42263092

Fishing for Russian Billionaires

There is ample evidence in Russian media from that period in the 2000s that brokers mounted a significant effort to attract buyers to Trump properties in Florida, Toronto and New York. And Trump and his children participated in those campaigns.

During the marketing of the Trump SoHo project, in which Trump licensed his name to a group that included Russian investors, the Trump family met with a group of Russian journalists at their New York offices to help boost interest in the project, according to Russian media reports. During the meeting, Trump was quoted telling the gathering of Russian journalists: “I really like Vladimir Putin. I respect him. He does his work well. Much better than our Bush.”

Eric Trump and Donald Jr. were also present, and were quoted praising the importance of Russian condo buyers, many of whom have purchased units in Trump buildings in seven-figure, cash-only deals.

"As the experience of the past few years shows, the best property buyers now are Russian,” Eric Trump is quoted as saying. “They're different in that they can go around without a mortgage loan from American banks, that require income checks and they can buy apartments with cash.”

Garten said the Trump Organization did not fly Russian journalists to New York to tout the SoHo project, or any other. “If such a trip took place it would have likely been arranged by the developer or the broker for the project - not us,” he said.