Meet Felix Sater, the Russian-born, bar-fighting felon with ties to the mob at the center of Mueller's Russia investigation

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Felix Sater's name continues to pop up in relation to the investigation into Russian election interference. Twitter
  • Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman with a checkered past, emerged as a central figure in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference.
  • Michael Cohen testified before the House Oversight Committee in February 2019, where the president's former lawyer suggested Trump lied under oath during a 2013 deposition when he said he didn't know Sater.
  • Cohen also said Sater had an office on "Mr. Trump's floor" in Trump Tower in Manhattan.
  • Here's a rundown of Sater's background and why his name continues to pop up in relation to Mueller's probe, which has concluded but is still a major topic in Washington.
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Read more: The Trump Organization reportedly wanted to give Putin the penthouse in Trump Tower Moscow

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Felix Sater, 52, was born in Moscow, but his family moved to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, New York, when he was 8 years old.

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Felix Sater and Donald Trump. Grant Stern/The Trump Organization

Sater has an extremely colorful history, involving bar fights, prison time, mob ties, and work as an FBI informant.

Felix Sater
Thos Robinson/Getty Images
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Sater, the former managing director of the real-estate development firm Bayrock Group, has close ties to the Trump Organization.

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A doorman stands in front of Trump Tower along Fifth Avenue on August 14, 2017 in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Sater is a felon and spent a year in prison after stabbing a man in the face with a broken margarita glass during a bar fight. He was 27 at the time. The man he stabbed suffered nerve damage and required 110 stitches to close the laceration on his face.

Sater
Twitter

Source: The Nation

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"I got into a bar fight over a girl neither he nor I knew," Sater said in a 2007 interview. "My life spiraled out of control." Sater was a Wall Street broker at the time and lost his stockbroker's license after the fight.

Felix Sater
Twitter

Source: The New York Times

In the late 1990s, Sater became an FBI informant after pleading guilty to involvement in a $40 million stock-fraud scheme orchestrated by the Russian mafia.

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Twitter

Source: CBS News

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In a statement Sater provided to government investigators in March, he claimed to have "provided extraordinary assistance to our government involving serious matters of National Security, posing tremendous risks to my safety and the safety of my family." This included allegedly providing information on al-Qaida after the 9/11 terror attacks.

Felix Sater Trump
Twitter

Source: Politico

Sater was also once reportedly involved in a plan to buy antiaircraft missiles on the black market for the CIA in either Russia or Afghanistan.

The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building is pictured in Langley, Virginia, U.S. on August 14, 2008. REUTERS/Larry Downing/Files
FILE PHOTO - The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building in Langley Thomson Reuters

Source: The New York Times

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Sater met Trump in 2003 while working for the Bayrock Group, which had its offices in Trump Tower in Manhattan. In the mid-2000s, he was involved in a failed effort to purchase land and build a high-end skyscraper for Trump in Moscow.

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 29: U.S. President Donald Trump walks toward a group of reporters to answer questions while departing the White House November 29, 2018 in Washington, DC. Trump answered numerous questions regarding his former attorney Michael Cohen's recent court appearance and testimony before departing for the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Win McNamee/Getty Images

Source: The Daily Beast

In 2006, Sater traveled to Russia with Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, giving them a tour of the Kremlin.

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Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Source: BuzzFeed

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In 2015 and 2016, Sater worked with Michael Cohen on a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. He pitched the idea to Cohen, telling him it would help get Trump elected. Sater told Cohen, "Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it."

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Michael Cohen. Craig Ruttle/Associated Press

Source: INSIDER

Sater told Cohen he would manage the project and get Russian President Vladimir Putin's team on board. "I will get Putin on this program, and we will get Donald elected," Sater told Cohen.

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President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Source: INSIDER

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Cohen in late November pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his involvement in the Trump Tower plan. The president's former personal lawyer said he and Sater discussed getting approval from the Russian government for the project up until June 2016, well into the 2016 presidential campaign season. Previously, Cohen claimed the discussions ceased in January 2016. Cohen has been sentenced to three years in prison for the crimes he's pleaded guilty to.

Michael Cohen
Michael Cohen. Yana Paskova/Getty Images

Source: INSIDER

In court documents linked to Cohen's bombshell revelations on Thursday, which came after a new plea deal with Mueller, Sater is referred to as "Individual 2" in relation to the Trump Tower discussions.

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Evan Vucci/AP, Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Source: Department of Justice

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As part of the discussions, Cohen was at one point reportedly in contact with Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Source: INSIDER

Sater said that as part of the Trump Tower plan they wanted to offer Putin a $50 million penthouse in the tower to make it more appealing to other rich Russians.

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Reuters

Source: INSIDER

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"My idea was to give a $50 million penthouse to Putin and charge $250 million more for the rest of the units," Sater said. "All the oligarchs would line up to live in the same building as Putin."

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US President Donald Trump (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin speak to the media during a joint press conference after their summit on July 16, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland. The two leaders met one-on-one and discussed a range of issues including the 2016 US Election collusion. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Source: INSIDER

The scrapped Trump Tower plan is at the center of Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the US election and allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller
The special counsel Robert Mueller. Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters

Source: INSIDER

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Trump has vehemently denied the collusion allegations and has routinely referred to the Mueller probe as a "witch hunt." He's also claimed he wouldn't recognize Sater if they were sitting in a room together, despite their well-documented history of working together.

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Win McNamee/Getty Images

Source: Newsweek

In testimony before the House Oversight Committee in late February, Cohen suggested Trump lied under oath during a 2013 deposition when he said he didn't know Sater. Cohen also said Sater had an office on "Mr. Trump's floor" in Trump Tower in Manhattan.

Micahel Cohen
President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, testifies before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Capitol Hill, Wednesday. Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Source: INSIDER

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During a hearing in the Eastern District of New York in mid-May, a federal judge confirmed that Sater helped the US government locate Osama bin Laden — the architect of the terror attacks on September 11, 2001.

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In this 1998 file photo made available on March 19, 2004, Osama bin Laden is seen at a news conference in Khost, Afghanistan. AP

Source: Politico

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"He cooperated,” Judge I. Leo Glasser said of Sater. “And you know what he did over the 10, 11 years, because you told me that you know. He provided the telephone number of Osama bin Laden. He has done an awful lot of very interesting and dangerous things."

FILE - In this Sept. 14, 2005, file photo, businessman Donald Trump, left, talks on his cellphone with Felix Sater, right, outside after speaking at the Bixpo 2005 business convention at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colo. Sater, a Soviet emigre who befriended Trump over a series of development deals in the 2000s and pushed the Trump Tower Moscow project before and during the 2016 presidential campaign, has emerged as a key figure in House Democrats’ investigations into Trump’s Russia connections. (Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post via AP)
FILE - In this Sept. 14, 2005, file photo, businessman Donald Trump, left, talks on his cellphone with Felix Sater, right, outside after speaking at the Bixpo 2005 business convention at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colo. Sater, a Soviet emigre who befriended Trump over a series of development deals in the 2000s and pushed the Trump Tower Moscow project before and during the 2016 presidential campaign, has emerged as a key figure in House Democrats’ investigations into Trump’s Russia connections. (Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post via AP) Associated Press

Source: Politico

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