Porn star’s lawyer says Russian paid Trump attorney Cohen

Stormy Daniels’ lawyer says he has information showing that Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney, received US$500,000 from a company associated with a Russian billionaire within months of paying hush money to Daniels, a porn star who claims she had an affair with Trump.

Lawyer Michael Avenatti also said Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of dollars streamed into Cohen’s account from companies, including pharmaceutical giant Novartis, AT&T and Korea Aerospace, with U.S. government business interests. AT&T confirmed its connection Tuesday evening.

Avenatti did not reveal the source of his information or release documentation. But in a seven-page memo, Avenatti detailed what he said were wire transfers going into and out of the account Cohen used to pay Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 to stay silent about her alleged affair with the soon-to-be president. Trump denies having an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Financial documents reviewed Tuesday by The Associated Press appeared to back up Avenatti’s report.

The memo, containing highly specific dates and amounts, stated that Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire, and his cousin “routed” eight payments totalling approximately $500,000 to Cohen’s company, Essential Consultants, between January and August 2017.

The reason for the payment was not known.

Speculating without offering proof, the Avenatti memo said, “It appears these funds may have replenished the account following the payment to Ms. Clifford.”

Avenatti’s memo said the deposits into the account controlled by Cohen were made by Columbus Nova, an American investment company headed by Vekselberg’s cousin Andrew Intrater and affiliated with the Renova Group, which is controlled by Vekselberg.

A spokesman for Vekselberg and the Renova Group said in a statement that “neither Victor Vekselberg nor Renova has ever had any contractual relationship with Mr Cohen or Essential Consultants.”

Andrey Shtorkh added that regarding a “relationship between Columbus Nova and Mr Cohen you have to ask Mr Andy Intrater, because Columbus Nova is a company owned and managed by him.”