According to BuzzFeed, the Trump Tower skyscraper was conceived as the tallest building in Europe, promising to surpass St. Petersburg's Lakhta Center. The publication cites a number of documents obtained by it, including architectural plans and various reports.
As a reminder, on January 21, 2020, lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, in an interview with The New Yorker, stated that no documents or plans for the construction of a skyscraper in Moscow City were yet available. According to him, all that had been done was send a letter to the Russian capital outlining plans to build the tower.
In reality, the Trump Tower project was created. In 2015, a New York architect developed plans for a 100-story glass tower, and Trump signed a letter at the same time, citing 250 luxury apartments. A hotel with at least 150 rooms was also planned for Trump Tower. The skyscraper was also slated to feature a fitness center and spa, not to mention parking and other luxury amenities. The documents included the right of Trump's representatives to name the spa after Ivanka Trump, who would then work on the interior design. Meanwhile, CNN reported on plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow City as early as 2017.
Trump's company was expected to receive approximately $4 million for the project, plus commissions from sales and rentals of the space, as well as food and beverage sales. For real estate transactions, the commission was set at 1-5%, determined entirely by the price of the premises sold.
Andrey Rozov, owner of the Expert Group, was supposed to be responsible for the project's implementation in Russia. The publication sent inquiries to the White House, the Trump Organization, Robert Giuliani, Rozov, and a representative of Special Counsel Mueller. Rozov's organization did not respond to the editorial team's calls.
In mid-January, BuzzFeed reported that Trump had instructed his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to mislead Congress about the progress of negotiations on plans to build a skyscraper in Moscow and to make it appear they had concluded earlier than they actually had. Trump subsequently dismissed the publication's reports as false.
