"I did not have sex with that woman."

Document details scrapped deal for Trump Tower Moscow

Around the time presidential candidate Donald Trump was touting his real estate dealings at a Republican primary debate, a proposal was in the works to build a Trump Tower in Russia that would have given his company a $4 million upfront fee, no upfront costs, a percentage of the sales, and control over marketing and design. 

And that's not all: the deal included the opportunity to name the hotel spa after his daughter Ivanka.

. . . .

Trump did not mention during the presidential campaign that his company explored the business deal in Russia. 

Instead, he insisted that he had "nothing to do with Russia." 

Even when talking about his past dealings with Russians -- like the Miss Universe pageant he held in Moscow in 2013 -- Trump never referred to the prospective licensing deal that fell through a few weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

While the potential Russian deal was still on the table, Trump was speaking positively about working with Russian President Vladimir Putin and also minimized Russia's aggressive military moves around the world. 

His willingness to accept narratives favored by the Kremlin contrasted with not only the Obama administration but also his Republican opponents.

At the debates, Trump went after those opponents -- but not Putin. 

In a primary debate in September 2015, he said he "would get along with" Putin and articulated a more conciliatory posture toward the Kremlin. 

In October 2015, days before he signed the letter of intent, Trump tweeted a link to an article titled "Putin loves Donald Trump."

. . . .

The effort was never publicly disclosed by Trump during the campaign, though there wasn't any requirement that he do so. 

But he insisted on several occasions that he had "nothing" to do with Russia, with a few exceptions -- a mansion he sold to a Russian in 2008, and the Miss Universe pageant he held in Moscow in 2013. 

He never mentioned the potential Trump Tower deal as one of the exceptions.

"I have no deals that could happen in Russia, because we've stayed away," Trump said in early January 2017 as President-elect. 

"We could make deals in Russia very easily if we wanted to, I just don't want to because I think that would be a conflict. I have no loans, no dealings, and no current pending deals."

Trump maintained that posture into his presidency, never once mentioning the failed effort to do business in Moscow, even as Special Counsel Robert Mueller and multiple Capitol Hill committees investigated his relationship with Russia.