COURTED RUSSIA
Trump donor told Kremlin he had info
A deep-pocketed Trump donor promised to provide information to a top Kremlin official during the 2016 campaign. according to reports Friday.
Simon Kukes, a Russian-born oil tycoon who now lives in Texas, told a senior figure in Moscow that he was “actively involved” in the President Trump’s campaign as he petitioned for a face-toface meeting, the Guardian and NBC News reported.
Kukes emailed Vyacheslav Pavlovsky, a career Kremlin official and former ambassador to Norway, and even shared photos of his 29year-old Russian girlfriend posing with Trump in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election.
The emails were obtained through the Dossier Center, a London-based investigative project funded by Russian expat and opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
“I have been actively involved in Trump’s election campaign, and am part of the group on strategy development,” Kukes wrote to Pavlovsky, now vice president of the stateowned Russian Railways. “I will be in Switzerland July 20th till August 2nd. Let me know how you are doing, and whether you want to meet.”
Kukes gave $273,000 to the Trump Victory fund, which doled out money to Trump and other GOP candidates.
He began writing checks two weeks after the now-infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving highranking members of the Trump team and a Russian lawyer promising “dirt” on Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russian election interference and possible coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia to influence the contest.