1. Candidate Trump’s Awareness of and Involvement in the Trump Tower Moscow Project The President’s interactions with Cohen as a witness took place against the background of the President’s involvement in the Trump Tower Moscow project. As described in detail in Volume I, Section IV.A.1, supra, from September 2015 until at least June 2016, the Trump Organization pursued a Trump Tower Moscow project in Russia, with negotiations conducted by Cohen, then- executive vice president of the Trump Organization and special counsel to 909 Donald J. Trump. The Trump Organization had previously and 910 unsuccessfully pursued a building project in Moscow. According to Cohen, in approximately September 2015 he obtained internal approval from Trump to negotiate on behalf of the Trump Organization to have a Russian corporation 911 build a tower in Moscow that licensed the Trump name and brand. Cohen 912 thereafter had numerous brief conversations with Trump about the project. Cohen recalled that Trump wanted to be updated on any developments with Trump Tower Moscow and on several occasions brought the project up with 913 Cohen to ask what was happening on it. Cohen also discussed the project on 914 multiple occasions with Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump. In the fall of 2015, Trump signed a Letter of Intent for the project that 915 specified highly lucrative terms for the Trump Organization. In December 2015, Felix Sater, who was handling negotiations between Cohen and the Russian corporation, asked Cohen for a copy of his and Trump’s passports to facilitate travel to Russia to meet with government officials and possible 916 financing partners. Cohen recalled discussing the trip with Trump and requesting a copy of Trump’s passport from Trump’s personal secretary, Rhona 917 Graff. By January 2016, Cohen had become frustrated that Sater had not set up a meeting with Russian government officials, so Cohen reached out directly by email to the office of Dmitry Peskov, who was Putin’s deputy chief of staff and 918 press secretary. On January 20, 2016, Cohen received an email response from Elena Poliakova, Peskov’s personal assistant, and phone records confirm that they then spoke for approximately twenty minutes, during which Cohen