Trump thinks idea of offering Putin the Trump Tower Moscow penthouse is 'stupid,' source says

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Michael Cohen pleads guilty in Russia probe

Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress; former Trump campaign manager Michael Caputo reacts.

A Thursday report that the Trump Organization once planned to offer the $50 million penthouse in Trump Tower Moscow to Russian President Vladimir Putin is “nuts,” a source close to the president told Fox News.

According to the report from Buzzfeed News, Trump’s company planned to give the penthouse to the Russian leader as they worked on a real estate deal for the building during the ongoing 2016 presidential campaign. The claim was sourced by four people, including one of the plan’s creators.

But the plan would have been a “stupid idea,” the source told Fox News Thursday night, adding that the president “never heard of it.”

Fox News is told Trump's legal team was unaware of such a plan.

The construction of the building was ultimately scrapped.

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Two law enforcement officials told Buzzfeed News that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney who pleaded guilty to lying to Congress on Thursday, spoke of the penthouse offering with a representative of Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for Putin.

It wasn’t clear if Trump was aware of the alleged plan to offer Putin the property, Buzzfeed reported.

Cohen entered the guilty plea in a surprise, 30-minute federal court appearance in New York City earlier Thursday.

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He pleaded guilty to making false statements to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017 about a plan to build the Trump Tower in Moscow. It marked the first time Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team charged Cohen as part of its investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates during the 2016 presidential election.

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Cohen faces five years in prison and a fine of up $250,000.

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Last year, Cohen testified and provided statements to both the House and Senate Intelligence Committee as part of congressional probes into Russian meddling and potential collusion with the Trump campaign.

"He is a weak person and not a very smart person," Trump said. "It's very simple. He's got himself a big prison sentence and he's trying to get a much lesser prison sentence by making up a story. And here's the thing, even if he's right, I was allowed to do whatever I wanted during the campaign."

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.