Exclusive: #Russian-American tycoon who donated c.$300K to #Trump was in extensive contact with senior #Kremlin official during summer 2016 - my story with @NBCNews and Dossier Center theguardian.com/us-news/2018/s…

Simon Kukes told Russian ex-ambassador he was involved in "strategy development" for #Trump campaign, and sent photos to Moscow of his 29-year-old girlfriend posing with candidate Trump and Mike Pence theguardian.com/us-news/2018/s…

Kukes gave $273,000 to #Trump Victory, making the first of several donations two weeks after notorious meeting in Trump Tower between Russia lawyer, Donald Trump Jr. et al. Kukes had no previous history of political donations

Kukes also attended several #Trump fund-raising dinners, and posed for a snap with Rudy Guiliani - or "America's most respected former mayor", as Kukes told Moscow. Both wore MAGA hats

At one #Trump fund-raiser Kukes had "warm conversation" with Len Blavatnik, Soviet-born US tycoon who gave $1m to #Trump's inauguration. Blavatnik's presence at the dinner new. The two men, plus Mikhail Fridman, Viktor Vekselberg and German Khan, were at Russian oil firm TNK

Here's @NBCNews and @RichardEngel on the breaking #Kukes story, featuring comment from former CIA officer on Kukes's messages to #Moscow: “To me this reads like an email exchange between a source and a handler, or a source and headquarters ..”
nbcnews.com/politics/donal…

Blavatnik says he's donated to both Democrats and Republicans in the past, supports Trump's "pro-business agenda". Kukes declined to comment but is understood to regret the donations, says he made them to make contacts in Houston. RNC confirms Kukes attended Trump fund-raisers

Here's @dossier_center on Simon Kukes and his communications in summer 2016 with Moscow, featuring his original emails in Russian: dossier.center/pavlovksy/arti… [Russian] #Trump