An attempt at untangling the latest news surrounding Michael Cohen, Russian oligarchs, and Stormy Daniels…
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Michael Avenatti released an “executive summary” yesterday of material he says connects Trump’s payment to Stormy Daniels to a Russian oligarch. Avenatti represents Daniels in her lawsuit against Trump and Michael Cohen. (NPR)
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The Avenatti dossier claims that a company connected to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg made eight payments to Essential Consultants, one Cohen’s shell companies, between January 2017 and August 2017. Avenatti suggested that the funds from Columbus Nova may have been used to reimburse Cohen for the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about her alleged affair with Trump. (Daily Beast)
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Essential Consultants received more than $1 million from Vekselberg’s Columbus Nova. Cohen’s company, Essential Consultants, was incorporated on October 17, 2016 – 10 days after the Access Hollywood tape went public and a weeks before the election – and is the same shell company used to pay Stormy Daniels on October 27th. More than $4.4 million flowed through Essential Consultants beginning just before the 2016 election and continued until January 2018. (New York Times)
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The Russia-linked company that hired Michael Cohen registered a number of alt-right websites during the 2016 elections. Columbus Nova is listed as the registrant behind a handful of website domains named them after the alt-right movement, including Alt-right.co, Alternate-right.com, Alternate-rt.com, Alt-rite.com, and others. The brother of Andrew Intrater, Columbus Nova’s U.S. CEO, is named in the registration databases for the websites. Columbus Nova said Frederick Intrater was not acting on behalf of the company, even though he had used his work email address and listed the organization. Columbus Nova gave $500,000 to Cohen in the first half of 2017. (Washington Post)
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Robert Mueller’s investigators questioned Vekselberg about a $500,000 payment from Columbus Nova to Essential Consultants that was made shortly after the 2016 election. Vekselberg was placed on a list of sanctioned Russians for election interference and other activities last month by the Trump administration. The purpose of the payments and the nature of the business relationship between Vekselberg and Cohen is still unclear. (CNN)
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AT&T paid Essential Consultants $200,000 in four separate installments for “insights” on the Trump administration between October 2017 and January 2018. Net neutrality was repealed in December 2017. Two of those payments came before the Justice Department filed a November 20th antitrust lawsuit to block AT&T’s $85 billion deal for Time Warner. Two payments came after that. (CNBC / Politico / The Atlantic)
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AT&T said it was contacted by Robert Mueller’s team and “cooperated fully” regarding its payments to Essential Consultants. AT&T may have paid Cohen’s company as much as $600,000 last year. (Dallas News / Bloomberg / Reuters)
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Drug giant Novartis paid Essential Consultants $1.2 million for health care policy consulting work that Cohen was “unable” to do. Novartis signed a one-year contract with Cohen’s shell company for $100,000 per month in February 2017 – days after Trump’s inauguration – for advice on “how the Trump administration might approach certain U.S. health-care policy matters, including the Affordable Care Act.” But a month after signing the deal, Novartis executives “determined that Michael Cohen and Essentials Consultants would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated” following their first meeting with Cohen. “Cohen promised access to not just Trump, but also the circle around him,” a Novartis employee said. “It was almost as if we were hiring him as a lobbyist.” (CNBC / Bloomberg / STAT News)
- Novartis CEO to employees: “We made a mistake” in working with Michael Cohen for guidance “as to how the Trump administration might approach certain US healthcare policy matters.” (CNBC)
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Mueller’s investigators questioned Novartis last year about its relationship with Cohen and Essential Consultants. “Novartis cooperated fully with the Special Counsel’s office and provided all the information requested,” a Novartis spokeswoman said in a statement. (Politico)
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Korean Aerospace Industries confirmed that it paid $150,000 to Essential Consultants. The company is in contention for a multibillion joint U.S. contract with Lockheed Martin for jet trainers. (Washington Post)
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The Treasury Department’s inspector general is investigating whether Essential Consultants banking information was leaked. Banks are required to file a Suspicious Activity Report on any unusual transactions over $10,000, which experts say could be the source of the information that Avenatti released yesterday. Rich Delmar, counsel to the inspector general, said that the office is “inquiring into allegations” that Suspicious Activity Reports on Cohen’s banking transactions were “improperly disseminated.” (Washington Post)
going to come up again?