Get your popcorn ready: Trump-Russia figure Felix Sater is making his television debut
If you’ve been closely following Donald Trump’s Russia scandal from the start, you’re well aware that Felix Sater – a convicted Russian mafia money laundering figure and a former FBI informant who has done real estate business with Trump – is one of the most important figures in it, and that his role has been one of the most under-reported to date. This week it was reported that Sater never did cease being an informant. Now it turns out he’s ready to put himself front and center.
Felix Sater has finally decided to make his big television debut. Why? No one knows yet, aside from him. BuzzFeed reported this week that Sater has remained an influential informant and operator for the U.S. intel community over the years, which gives new context to last year’s reporting which suggested that he was merely some kind of FBI snitch. His ongoing status as a federal informant means that, by definition, he must have given everything he knows about Trump and Russia to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. That’s a big deal, because Sater has been in position to know quite a lot.
Sater and the Trump Organization have partnered over the years for shady real estate deals including the infamous Trump SoHo property. Those deals were spearheaded by Ivanka Trump. Because Sater is a convicted Russian mafia money launderer, it’s raised serious questions about whether Trump SoHo was a money laundering front, and whether Ivanka knew about it at the time. Now it appears Sater is ready to answer at least some of these kinds of questions.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes revealed on-air this evening that Felix Sater will be a guest on his show on Friday evening. It’s not been revealed which topics Sater is willing to discuss, which media reports he’ll confirm, or what he might refute. It’s also unclear what he’s even allowed to publicly discuss, due to the ongoing nature of the Trump-Russia investigation. But get your popcorn ready anyway, because this should be a doozy.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report