although Cohen had regularly briefed Trump on the status of the project and had numerous conversations about it, the statement said, “Mr. Trump was never in contact with anyone about this proposal other than me on three occasions, 969 including signing a non-binding letter of intent in 2015.” Fourth, although Cohen’s outreach to Peskov in January 2016 had resulted in a lengthy phone call with a representative from the Kremlin, the statement said that Cohen did “not recall any response to my email [to Peskov], nor any other contacts by me with 970 Mr. Peskov or other Russian government officials about the proposal.” Cohen’s statement was circulated in advance to, and edited by, members of 971 the JDA. Before the statement was finalized, early drafts contained a sentence stating, “The building project led me to make limited contacts with 972 Russian government officials.” In the final version of the statement, that line 973 was deleted. Cohen thought he was told that it was a decision of the JDA to 974 take out that sentence, and he did not push back on the deletion. Cohen recalled that he told the President’s personal counsel that he would not contest a 975 decision of the JDA. Cohen also recalled that in drafting his statement for Congress, he spoke with the President’s personal counsel about a different issue that connected candidate Trump to Russia: Cohen’s efforts to set up a meeting between Trump 976 and Putin in New York during the 2015 United Nations General Assembly. In September 2015, Cohen had suggested the meeting to Trump, who told Cohen 977 to reach out to Putin’s office about it. Cohen spoke and emailed with a Russian official about a possible meeting, and recalled that Trump asked him 978 multiple times for updates on the proposed meeting with Putin. When Cohen called the Russian official a second time, she told him it would not follow proper protocol for Putin to meet with Trump, and Cohen relayed that message to 979 Trump. Cohen anticipated he might be asked questions about the proposed Trump-Putin meeting when he testified before Congress because he had talked 980 about the potential meeting on Sean Hannity’s radio show. Cohen recalled explaining to the President’s personal counsel the “whole story” of the attempt to 981 set up a meeting between Trump and Putin and Trump’s role in it. Cohen recalled that he and the President’s personal counsel talked about keeping Trump out of the narrative, and the President’s personal counsel told Cohen the story