Flight records obtained by Bloomberg indicate Donald Trump spent a full night in Moscow during his trip to the city for the Miss Universe competition in November 2013, contradicting the alibi he offered in response to the most salacious allegation in the Steele dossier.
According to Bloomberg, Trump’s jet landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport at 6:15 a.m. on Friday, November 8. It didn’t take off for the return flight to the U.S. until 3:58 a.m. on Sunday, meaning Trump was there for one full night and most of a second.
The flight records aren’t consistent with what Trump told former FBI director James Comey about the “pee tape” allegation. In his newly released memos detailing his interactions with Trump, Comey writes that after he informed him about the dossier’s allegation that Russia is in possession of a tape of Trump watching sex workers urinate on a hotel bed at the Moscow Ritz-Carlson, Trump told him on two separate occasions that the allegation couldn’t be true because he never even spent a night in the city.
Comey wrote that during a January 28, 2017 dinner with Trump at the White House, Trump brought up the “golden showers thing” and said “[h]e had spoken to people who had been on the Miss Universe trip with him and they had reminded him that he didn’t stay over in Russia for that.”
“He said he arrived in the morning, did events, then showered and dressed for the pageant at the hotel (he didn’t say the hotel name) and left for the pageant. Afterwards, he returned only to get his things because they departed for New York by plane that same night,” Comey’s memo continues.
Then, during a meeting between the two men on February 8, according to Comey, Trump again brought up the “Golden Showers thing.”
Trump “said it really bothered him if his wife had any doubt about it,” Comey wrote. “He then explained, as he did at our dinner, that he hadn’t stayed overnight in Russia during the Miss Universe trip… The President said ‘the hookers thing’ is nonsense but that Putin had told him ‘we have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world.’ (He did not say when Putin had told him this [redacted])”
The flights logs are corroborated by social media posts Trump posted around the time of the Miss Universe competition, which indicate he spent at least one night in Moscow.
I'm in Moscow for Miss Universe tonight – picking a winner is very hard, they are all winners. Total sellout of arena. Big night in Russia!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2013
I just got back from Russia-learned lots & lots. Moscow is a very interesting and amazing place! U.S. MUST BE VERY SMART AND VERY STRATEGIC.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2013
The flight logs are also consistent with the sworn testimony of Trump’s longtime bodyguard, Keith Schiller.
Testifying before Congress last November, Schiller said that a Russian man he didn’t know offered to send five women to Trump’s hotel room. According to an NBC News report about the testimony, Schiller said that although he interpreted the offer as a joke, he discussed it with Trump as they walked back to his hotel room before each of them turned in for the night.
“Schiller testified that he stood outside Trump’s hotel room for a time and then went to bed,” NBC reported. “One source noted that Schiller testified he eventually left Trump’s hotel room door and could not say for sure what happened during the remainder of the night.”
The release of the flight logs present Trump with a dilemma, if he’s asked about his activities in Moscow. Trump could stick with his claim, as reported by Comey, that he never spent the night in Moscow. But that position would add credibility to memos he’s repeatedly called “fake” and “phony.” On the other hand, if Trump acknowledges that he did in fact spend a night in Moscow, he adds credibility to one of the dossiers’ most salacious claims.