Trump lawyer sold pricey ‘insight’ into president
Novartis says it paid Cohen $1.2M to help it understand Trump
WASHINGTON — Already under investigation for a payment to a porn star, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney is facing intensifying legal and ethical scrutiny for selling his Trump experience and views to companies that sought “insight” into the new president.
One company, pharmaceutical giant Novartis, acknowledged Wednesday it paid Michael Cohen $1.2 million for services, though they ended after a single meeting. Others, including some with major regulatory matters before the new administration, acknowledged payments totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars over at least several months.
The corporate ties could suggest Cohen was peddling his influence and profiting from his relationship with the president. They also raise questions about whether Trump knew about the ar- rangement.
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that the president didn’t know about the payments Cohen had received.
“The president was unaware of this,” Giuliani said, referring to the revelations about Cohen’s income that surfaced late Tuesday. “The president is not involved in any respect.”
Cohen’s corporate ties were first revealed in a detailed report released by an attorney for pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels. The report alleged that Cohen used a company he established weeks before the 2016 election to receive the payments from a variety of businesses — including $500,000 from one associated with a Russian billionaire. Financial documents reviewed by The Associated Press appear to back up much of attorney Michael Avenatti’s report. Cohen has called it inaccurate.
Three companies confirmed the payments. Novartis and AT&T both said Cohen’s Essential Consultants was hired to help them understand the new president during the early days of the Trump administration. Novartis said in a statement that it paid Cohen $100,000 a month for a year-long contract, thinking the longtime New York legal “fixer” with few Washington ties could advise on health care matters. After a single meeting they decided “not to engage further.”
Some of the companies that engaged Cohen also had contact with Trump personally. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson met with him during the transition and has visited the White House as the company has sought approval to absorb Time Warner. The current CEO of Novartis attended a dinner with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this year, though the company stressed that the agreement with Cohen’s company predated the CEO’s time at the company and he was not involved with the deal.
Just what Cohen was selling was a key question Wednesday, particularly given that public records show he is not a registered lobbyist. Cohen could enter these relationships without violating federal lobbying laws if he did not seek to influence Trump on the companies’ behalf.
Some of the dealings have Michael Cohen got $100,000 a month in a year-long deal with Novartis, the company said. caught the attention of the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. A spokesman for Novartis said the company was contacted in November by Robert Mueller’s office regarding the company’s agreement with Essential Consultants, which expired this year.
Cohen also used the company to pay $130,000 to Daniels just before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with the future president. Cohen is under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York but has not been charged.
On Wednesday, Cohen said of Avenatti, “His document is inaccurate,” accord- ing to NBC News.
Cohen has told associates that Avenatti’s claims are overheated, and he has maintained that he has not done anything wrong, according to a person familiar with the attorney’s views but not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.
Cohen, who until January 2017 worked for the Trump Organization, was a fixture in the company’s headquarters in Trump Tower in the weeks before the president took office. Ex-campaign officials did not recall Cohen or Trump ever discussing Cohen’s plans to launch a consulting firm, according to three ex-campaign officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss pri- vate conversations.
Some who used to work for Trump defended Cohen’s actions, assuming he did not break any regulations about lobbying. “Corporations want to pay for insight, advocacy and expertise on a White House,” said former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg. “Michael offered that. He didn’t do anything wrong, he did what lots of people have done over the years.”
The Treasury Department’s Office of the Inspector General said Wednesday it was investigating how allegations about Cohen’s banking records became public.