are on the table to discuss.”251 By early June, Sater is telling Cohen there is a “very strong chance” that he will meet Putin in St. Petersburg.252 On June 14—the day it is revealed that Russian government hackers have penetrated the DNC and stolen materials from the committee—Cohen informs Sater he will not be traveling to St. Petersburg after all.253 Cohen will subsequently tell the special counsel’s office that his only reason for declining Peskov’s personal invitation to attend the St. Petersburg economic forum was that he suddenly decided, on June 14, that “Russian officials were not actually … interested in meeting with him”—a view strongly contradicted by the whole of the Kremlin’s correspondence with him through Sater.254 Cohen appears to offer the special counsel’s office no additional information about his decision.
Whether known to Cohen in June 2016 or not, a deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation, Sergei Prikhodko, had in December 2015 invited Trump himself to the St. Petersburg forum, shortly after Flynn dined with Putin in Moscow.255 A February 2018 report will link Prikhodko to Oleg Deripaska, alleging—with both audio, video, and photographic evidence—that Deripaska has been bribing Prikhodko, and that among the topics the two men have discussed during their clandestine meetings is Russian election interference.256 Deripaska’s then girlfriend, Nastya Rybka, will claim to have sixteen hours of audio recordings establishing Deripaska’s involvement with Russian election meddling; Rybka is arrested in Moscow and held by local police until she agrees to relinquish the tapes in her possession to Deripaska.257 A viral video released in January 2019 shows Rybka’s arrest at an airport in Moscow; the young woman is unceremoniously dragged through the airport by unidentified law enforcement officers just before she is about to speak to a bank of reporters about her evidence of Deripaska’s alleged involvement in Kremlin crimes.258
Rhona Graff, Trump’s personal secretary, declines Prikhodko’s December 2015 invitation in January 2016. Prikhodko repeats his offer in March 2016, just seventy-two hours after Trump national security adviser George Papadopoulos makes his first contact with the Kremlin—a conversation with Joseph Mifsud he immediately reports to the campaign.259 On the same day Graff is preparing Trump’s second letter of declination to Prikhodko, a New York–based investment banker, Robert Foresman, emails Graff to say that a presidential aide at the Kremlin has asked him to reach out to Trump personally to convince him to come to St. Petersburg.260 In his entreaty to Trump, Foresman brags of his “personal and professional expertise in Russia and Ukraine … [and] his work in setting up an early ‘private channel’ between Vladimir Putin and former U.S. President George W. Bush.”261 Foresman insists to Graff that he is asking for Trump’s attendance at the St. Petersburg economic forum following an “approach … from senior Kremlin officials” on the subject.262 Foresman also tells Graff he has things he needs to discuss with Trump that he cannot discuss over “unsecure email.”263 It is unknown whether Trump’s demurrals regarding the St. Petersburg forum stem from his belief, at the time, that Cohen would be attending in his stead.
* * *
Just a few weeks after MBS announces his new anti-terrorism alliance in December 2015, Trump’s attitude toward Saudi Arabia on Twitter undergoes an about-face. Whereas previously Trump had falsely accused the Saudis of secretly and illegally colluding with candidate Obama during the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, and had seemingly approached U.S.-Saudi relations as an opportunity for America to increase its revenue from overseas military and peacekeeping operations, on January 3, 2016, Trump for the first time accuses Obama of being hostile to Saudi interests—implicitly positioning himself as the pro-Saudi alternative in American politics. “Iran, with all of the money and all else given to them by Obama, has wanted a way to take over Saudi Arabia & their oil. THEY JUST FOUND IT!” tweets Trump, referring to the rollback of certain international sanctions against Iran pursuant to its compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.264
The sanctions rollback required under the Iran nuclear deal unfreezes about $100 billion in Iranian funds then held by the United States, which the Obama administration thereafter returns to Iran; according to CNBC, “Tehran will only have access to roughly $55 billion because much of that money will go toward repaying loans and other long-term commitments. The rest will likely be used to address Iran’s ailing oil operations and other infrastructure that went without maintenance for years.”265 According to a summary of remarks by Secretary of State John Kerry published by