It's not clear whether that also marked the end of The Trump Organization's efforts to develop a building in Russia. KEITH: That very same day, Cohen met with his associate in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York and told him the trip to Russia was off. The hackers are believed to have had access to DNC databases and communications. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: The Democratic National Committee was hacked by two Russian intelligence agencies. If that date sounds familiar, that's because it's also the day of the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting where Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner met with Russians with the premise of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton. On June 9, 2016, according to the filings, a Cohen business associate who was communicating with Russia emailed him trying to firm up the travel. KEITH: That June, Cohen was even considering a trip to Russia to push for the project. Common sense says this cycle, this horrible cycle of hostility, must end and ideally will end soon - good for both countries. TRUMP: I believe an easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia from a position of strength only is possible, absolutely possible. That means that when Trump delivered this foreign policy address in Washington, D.C., in the spring of 2016 with the Russian ambassador in the audience, he still had a potential business interest in Russia. Cohen continued Moscow Project-related discussions until at least the middle of June 2016 and, according to the filings, updated Trump and members of his family on his progress. In testimony to Congress last year, Cohen claimed the so-called Moscow Project fizzled out in January 2016, before the first votes were cast in the race for president. KEITH: Then-candidate Trump said all of those things during a time when court filings now reveal Michael Cohen was actively pursuing a development project for Trump in Russia. I mean, if we got along with Russia, that would be sort of nice, wouldn't it? And I say very nicely, wouldn't it be nice if actually we could get along with Russia? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Putin said very nice things about me. TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: When compared to the rest of the Republicans running for president in 2016, there was always something different about the way Donald Trump talked about Russia. NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith has this look at the timeline. All right, so the new court filings you just heard about along with Michael Cohen's guilty plea reveal new information about what was happening behind the scenes in 2016 while President Trump was campaigning for president.
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