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The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating allegations of Russia's interference in the 2016 elections, has been talking with David Geovanis for several months, sources said.
Geovanis helped organize a trip to Trump Moscow in 1996, which was about to pursue what would become a long-standing goal of building a Trump tower in the Russian capital, according to numerous media reports from the 39; era.
Years later, Geovanis worked for the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, whose links with Trump's 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, were also of interest to investigators.
Two witnesses who testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee said they were questioned about past relations between Geovanis and the president during talks last year. The interviews were conducted by staff members working for the Republican and Democratic sides of the committee, according to sources, who wish to remain anonymous because of the confidential nature of the Senate investigation.
The interest of the Senate Intelligence Committee for Geovanis indicates that his investigation is looking more deeply into Trump's past in Russia than previously thought.
A businessman, three women and Josef Stalin
One of the two witnesses said the committee has a photo of a younger Geovanis who appears to take a picture with three partially dressed women. The portrait, once exhibited in a Russian gallery under the title "The Capitalist", describes the subjects in front of a photo of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. It is not clear if the portrait is a single photo or a composite.
The witness told CNN that the photo was shown to them during the interrogation.
A third witness testified in a written statement, seen by CNN, that Geovanis could be valuable in the mystery of whether Russia possesses information about Trump that could be personally embarrassing for him.
Known as "Geo" for his friends, Geovanis was born in Brockton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Trump alma mater, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. After starting his career in finance, Geovanis went to Moscow to work in a Russian company of the Brooke group, which owned land reserved for the site of a future Trump tower. According to some sources, when Trump came to town to promote the project, it was up to Geovanis to show it to him.
Brooke owners, Bennett LeBow and Howard Lorber, real estate magnates, have also been valuable donors to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Trump personally recognized the podium pair after winning the 2016 Republican primaries. At New York.
Numbers blocked and "dirt" on Clinton
Trump Jr., the son-in-law of President Jared Kushner, and Manafort, meeting assistants, as well as Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskya, who had promised to greet Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, l & # 39; électionnent. Lorber has not responded to several calls for comments.
When he was contacted by telephone by CNN, Geovanis declined to comment on his relationship with the president or to talk about the photo that would have been in the possession of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It would not reveal its location, although CNN was able to confirm its presence in the Moscow region as recently as this month. When asked if he had been approached by the committee and he was aware of his interest, Geovanis told CNN that he had "no comment".
The spokesman for the Republican Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, declined to say whether Geovanis was interested. A spokeswoman for the Democratic Vice-Chair of the committee, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, also declined to comment.
It is unclear whether Geovanis is also of interest to the investigation led by the special advocate Robert Mueller on allegations of Russian interference in electoral matters.
The legal team of the president refused to comment on his relationship with Geovanis. An attorney from the Trump organization also declined to comment.
A tower that has never been built
Two decades later, discussions on the construction of another Trump tower in the Russian capital were at the heart of the Mueller investigation.
Trump often denied that his relations with Russia continued in the 2016 campaign. Even at the end of 2018, Trump tweeted that he "has never met a single Russian official".
It is unclear what motivated the interest of the Senate Intelligence Committee for Geovanis. But many sources close to his activities tell CNN that their investigations date back to last spring when she sent him a letter asking him to testify. Sources claim that he has not yet done so but adds that he has appointed a US legal adviser.
Lebow and Lorber have changed the name of their company, from Brooke Group, to Vector Group, a Nasdaq-listed cigarette and real estate company. The three main shareholders of the Vector group include Renaissance Technologies, the hedge fund formerly managed by Robert Mercer, the conservative donor who was once the head of the corporate and political businesses of Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist of Trump.
A spokeswoman for Vector did not respond to CNN's emails requesting a comment. A fax to BSL Capital, the family-owned company in Lebow, remained unanswered, despite the assistance of an assistant confirming his reception.
Geovanis, who married a Russian woman, obtained a Russian passport in 2014. He was seen by family members in the United States in early 2017, after the death of his mother.
It is thought that he has not returned to the United States since then, and his decision to stay in Moscow means that US Congressional investigators can not easily find what he knows.
In 2017, Lebow re-engaged Geovanis to found the Russian branch of another company, Somerset Coal International, an energy technology company that claims to "clean" coal by washing it at high pressure.
Among the people Geovanis asked for investments was Deripaska, the billion-dollar metal and mining magnate for whom Geovanis was working in the mid-2000s, according to a person close to Somerset Coal's business plan, who was speaking under the covered by anonymity.
A spokesperson for Deripaska did not respond to CNN's requests for comment.
Nathan Hodge of CNN, Tim Lister, Kara Scannell and Evan Perez contributed to this report.
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