Felix Sater, who served as the chief negotiator for the Trump Tower Moscow project, will testify on Capitol Hill later this week.
The Russian-born businessman confirmed to POLITICO that he will appear behind closed doors before the House Intelligence Committee on Friday.
Sater was initially scheduled to testify in March, but the imminent release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election prompted the panel to postpone the interview.
Lawmakers had initially said the interview — which is expected to focus on the negotiations surrounding the failed Moscow real estate project — would be public.
But the panel decided to make it private because the subjects are extremely sensitive and concern national security issues, including Sater’s previous work as an undercover asset for the Defense Intelligence Agency on Russia issues, said a person familiar with the matter.A spokesman for Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) declined to comment. The Washington Post first reported Sater’s scheduled appearance.
The Trump Tower Moscow project has been a chief focus of the Intelligence Committee’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump could be compromised by foreign actors. Trump did not disclose the ongoing negotiations while he was seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2015 and 2016, and his former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to lying to the Intelligence panel about the timing of the negotiations.
Cohen is serving a three-year prison sentence for those lies and other financial crimes connected to hush-money payments that he orchestrated on Trump’s behalf.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine