At a panel hosted by The New Yorker magazine on Saturday, where he shared the stage with attorney Michael Avenatti and journalists Adam Davidson, Ruth Marcus and David Barstow, Sater shared some insights into the president’s relationship with Russia.
Trump has been under scrutiny for his ties to Russia’s President Putin and for his lukewarm response to Russian government’s efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Sater acknowledged that Trump has an affinity for Russian investors, but according to him the reason is mundane. “Donald Trump loved Russian buyers for one very simple reason: their checks cleared, and quickly,” Sater said.
Wealthy Russians, meanwhile, were drawn to Trump properties because of their “opulence,” “over-the-top” design, and the president’s celebrity. Buying at a Trump property “became a status symbol: I have arrived,” Sater said.
Asked if money was laundered through Trump properties, Sater replied “yes and no,” pointing to his Trump Soho co-developer Tamir Sapir as an example. “He made his money, when the Soviet Union collapsed, in the oil business. Rightly, wrongly, stole it, deserved it, didn’t deserve it… he took all that money and invested it in New York real estate,” Sater said of the late Sapir. “By the time he invested with us — he put $300 million into the building — the concept of ‘was this money dirty or not’… If we go back the Roosevelts made all of their money in the drug business, in China, in opium. So I mean how far back do you go to look at the money?”
There is an opium trade these days, big Pharma behind it, and the nod and wink inattention continues; while the two party system, as practiced in DC and on K Street in particular prospers.
Bernie is different.
Bernie Would Have Won!