James Comey alleged in his recently-released memos that President Trump denied spending a night in Russia during the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, but Bloomberg is reporting that flight records show otherwise.
Flight records obtained by Bloomberg say that Trump’s jet shows him flying into Moscow on Friday evening, staying overnight, and flying out the next evening, after the Miss Universe Pageant on Saturday evening and a late night afterparty.
But according to Comey, Trump told him over dinner in late January 2017 that he arrived in Moscow in the morning, attended the pageant that evening, and flew out.
Comey also alleged that Trump told him in February 2017 that he had not stayed overnight in Russia during the Miss Universe trip.
According to the flight records, Trump allegedly flew from North Carolina at 9:15 p.m. on Thursday, landing in Moscow some time on Friday.
Bloomberg said Trump posted on social media later Friday on Facebook: in Moscow, and attended a birthday party. The next day, on Saturday, Trump posted from the Ritz-Carlton hotel.
That evening, he attended the Miss Universe pagean, and went to an afterparty that started at 1:00 a.m., then flew out of Moscow at 3:58 a.m. on Sunday, according to flight records.
Bloomberg does not explicitly allege that Trump lied to Comey, but said the flight records provide “fresh details.”
“Combined with existing accounts and Trump’s own social-media posts, they capture two days that, nearly five years later, loom large in the controversy engulfing the White House and at the heart of the Comey memos, which the Justice Department turned over last week to Congress,” it said.
However, Bloomberg does not address whether Comey’s recollection may have been inaccurate, or what Trump might have actually done Friday evening into Saturday morning.
It has already been widely reported that Trump spent a night in Moscow during the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.
According to the New York Times, Trump’s longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller told Congress during a private hearing that during that trip, he was offered to have five women sent to Trump’s hotel room, but that Schiller declined.
Schiller told investigators that night, he stood guard outside Trump’s door after he retired for the night, before eventually going to sleep himself.
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