This is an example of how Mueller's investigators spent a lot of time on a petty question.
The issue is: Trump was invited to an event in St. Petersburg in June 2016. He didn't go. Your name is Bob Mueller and you are very curious about why Trump didn't go to this meeting. Did he know about it? Was he invited? Did he say that he was going to go and then not? Did he ignore the invitation? Did he decline the invitation? Did he forget about it?
You start with Felix Sater, who is Michael Cohen's connection to the Moscow Tower project. Sater has a friend named Dmitry Peskov who claims to know Putin.
Sater tied Cohen's travel to Russia to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum ("Forum"), an annual event attended by prominent Russian politicians and businessmen. Sater told the Office that he was informed by a business associate that Peskov wanted to invite Cohen to the Forum. On May 5, 2016, Sater wrote to Cohen: Peskov would like to invite you as his guest to the St. Petersburg Forum which is Russia's Davos it's June 16-19. He wants to meet there with you and possibly introduce you to either Putin or Medvedev, as they are not sure if 1 or both will be there.
On December 21, 2015, Sater sent Cohen a text message that read, "They need a copy of DJT passport," to which Cohen responded , "After I return from Moscow with you with a date for him."
On June 9, 2016, Sater sent Cohen a notice that he (Sater) was completing the badges for the Forum, adding, "Putin is there on the 17th very strong chance you will meet him as well."
On June 13, 2016 , Sater forwarded Cohen an invitation to the Forum signed by the Director of the Roscongress Foundation, the Russian entity organizing the Forum. Sater also sent Cohen a Russian visa application and asked him to send two passport photos. According to Cohen, the invitation gave no indication that Peskov had been involved in inviting him. Cohen was concerned that Russian officials were not actually involved or were not interested in meeting with him (as Sater had alleged), and so he decided not to go to the Forum.
On June 14, 2016, Cohen met Sater in the lobby of the Trump Tower in New York and informed him that he would not be traveling at that time.
Ok, so Cohen didn't trust Sater and decided not to go. But he mentioned the bossman DJT. Must investigate further. Your timeline looks like:
December 21, 2015: Mira Duma emails Ivanka Trump passing along Sergie Prikhodko’s invite to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum as an attachment. Sergei Prikhodko is the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.
January 7, 2016: Ivanka forwards email to Rhona Graff
January 14, 2016: Graff replies to Duma by email saying Trump would have to decline because of his travel schedule, asking whether she should send a formal declination
January 15, 2016: Duma replies that a formal denial note would be appropriate
March 17, 2016: Prikhodko emails Graff again inviting Trump to SPIEF
March 31, 2016: Graff prepares a two-paragraph letter declining the invitation and forwards it to another assistant to have Trump sign it, which he doesn’t sign
March 31, 2016: Robert Foresman follows up a phone introduction by Mark Burnett with an email to Graff, explaining that he had set up a back channel between George W Bush and Putin and discussing an “approach” by “senior Kremlin officials” asking for a meeting with Lewandowski about topics he did not want to include on an unsecure email
March 31, 2016: At a meeting of Trump’s foreign policy advisors, he responds favorably to Papadopoulos’ pitch to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin
April 4, 2016: Graff forwards that email to the same assistant who had put the invitation declination on letterhead
April 26, 2016: Foresman reminds Graff [of his request to set up a back channel]
April 27, 2016: Graff forwards the initial March 31 email and the April 26 email to Lewandowski
April 27, 2016: Papadopoulos emails Miller, “Have some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right”
April 27, 2016: Papadopoulos emails Lewandowski, “to discuss Russia’s interest in hosting Mr. Trump. Have been receiving a lot of calls over the last month about Putin wanting to host him and the team when the time is right”
April 30, 2016: Foresman reminds Graff again, suggesting a meeting with Don Jr or Eric Trump, so he could convey information that “should be conveyed to [the candidate] personally or [to] someone [the candidate] absolutely trusts”
May 2, 2016: Graff forwards the April 30 email to Stephen Miller
May 4, 2016: Cohen tells Sater he would travel before the RNC in July, and Trump would “once he becomes the nominee after the convention”
May 5, 2016: Sater extends invitation purportedly from Peskov to SPIEF.
More unanswered questions. Did Trump actually formally decline the invitation? Who is the unnamed assistant? Did Stephen Miller pass on the email from Foresman to Trump? Let's ask Trump himself.
e. During the campaign, were you told about efforts by Russian officials to meet with you or senior members of your campaign? If yes, describe who you had conversations with on this topic, when, and what you were told.
I do not recall being told during the campaign of efforts by Russian officials to meet with me or with senior members of my campaign. In the process of preparing to respond to these questions, I became aware that on March 17, 2016, my assistant at the Trump Organization, Rhona Graff, received an email from a Sergei Prikhodko, who identified himself as Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Foundation Roscongress, inviting me to participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to be held in June 2016. The documents show that Ms. Graff prepared for my signature a brief response declining the invitation. I understand these documents already have been produced to you.
Confused yet? Let me recap: So Mueller's team subpoenas Felix Sater to talk about this event. They also talk to Cohen about it. And Ivanka. Trump has no recollection of it, but finds an email from his secretary declining the invitation. But it is still not clear if the declination was sent.
But what about the Foresman request to set up a back channel? Trump didn't mention that in his answers to the interrogatories. Therefore, this proves collusion and obstruction. And why didn't Barr mention it in his 4-page summary? Impeach!
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