Our view: Payments to Trump’s fixer carry that swampy smell
It’s hard to know which is worse: the
$500,000 payment made to presidential fixer Michael Cohen by a firm linked to a Russian oligarch, or the similar payments made to Cohen by blue-chip corporations.
The former payment, from a New York company called Columbus Nova that says it was seeking Cohen’s investment expertise, is one of the most disturbing examples yet of a possible Kremlin connection to Team Trump. It seems more like a chapter from The Manchurian Candidate than real life. It deserves, and is undoubtedly getting, the full attention of special counsel Robert Mueller.
The latter payments are further evidence of how President Trump and close associates are not draining the swamp, as Trump promised to do, but rather creating whole new wetlands.
Nothing in Washington is swampier than influence peddling, whether through pay-to-play campaign contributions or what are euphemistically called “consulting fees.” Companies such as AT&T, Novartis and Korea Aerospace Industries were clearly attempting to buy access to the Trump administration, if not favorable outcomes on important policy matters. And Cohen was glad to sell, even if he couldn’t necessarily deliver.
AT&T, which according to CNBC gave Cohen up to $600,000, said it paid his firm for “insights into understanding the new administration.” At the time it engaged Cohen, AT&T was seeking tax and regulatory relief, as well as a favorable outlook on its proposed merger with Time Warner.
The explanations given by other Cohen clients also flunk the smell test: Drug-maker Novartis, which signed a
$1.2 million contract with Cohen, said it was looking for health care expertise. Korea Aerospace, which paid Cohen
$150,000 and was seeking a contract for military training jets, said it called on Cohen for his accounting expertise.
Cohen is an odd choice for investment advice, insights, health policy savvy or accounting tips. He has a long history of settling Trump’s personal affairs but was given no role in the new administration and never registered as a lobbyist. So far, at least, it appears that the companies that paid him got little for their money other than attention from Mueller’s office.
The Cohen company that received the money, Essential Consultants, heretofore has only been known as a conduit for paying $130,000 in hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
The corporate payments suggest a return to the bad old days of the Nixon administration, when companies with matters before the federal government, including ITT Corp., made large offbook contributions to the president’s re-election committee.
In recent years, Congress and the courts have helped unravel post-Watergate reforms. Yet, as in the Watergate era, “follow the money” remains a good guideline for investigators. The payments to Cohen carry a particularly pungent odor.