DragonI

“And in this private plot be we the first that shall salute our rightful sovereign” Henry VI #ShakespeareSunday #MichaelCohen #FelixSater #Putin #Trump #TrumpRussia #12Russians #Russia #TrumpTreason #TrumpTower #Moscow #MuellerTime #Indictments

— cassandracarolina‏ @cassandra17lina -  July 15, 2018

With all of this news of Russian oligarchs it appears official: #StormyGate is #TrumpRussia and Cohen is going to go down for it all or flip for his life.

— Nick Walden Poublon‏ @NWPinPDX

Inside Michael Cohen's aggressive pitch promising access to Trump

Michael Cohen served loyally as Donald Trump's right-hand man for more than a decade, taking care of anything and everything the New York real estate baron needed to get done.

www.cnn.com|MJ Lee, Javier De Diego, Sarah Westwood, Marshall Cohen, Gloria Borger, Sara Murray and Dana Bash, CNN

A former Trump campaign official who worked on the transition said "everybody knew" Cohen had taken on consulting work after the election. It was widespread practice among high-ranking Trump associates who did not go into the administration to provide consulting services after Trump won in November 2016, this person said, noting that Cohen was far from the only person to do so.

"You don't need access to (Trump). All you need is the perception of access to (Trump)," the former campaign official said.

Firm Tied to Russian Oligarch Made Payments to Michael Cohen

The shell company Mr. Cohen used to pay Stormy Daniels later received over $1 million from the firm and several companies with business before the Trump administration.

www.nytimes.com

A shell company that Michael D. Cohen used to pay hush money to a pornographic film actress received payments totaling more than $1 million from an American company linked to a Russian oligarch and several corporations with business before the Trump administration, according to documents and interviews.

Financial records reviewed by The New York Times show that Mr. Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer and longtime fixer, used the shell company, Essential Consultants L.L.C., for an array of business activities that went far beyond what was publicly known. Transactions adding up to at least $4.4 million flowed through Essential Consultants starting shortly before Mr. Trump was elected president and continuing to this January, the records show.

Among the previously unreported transactions were payments last year of about $500,000 from Columbus Nova, an investment firm in New York whose biggest client is a company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, the Russian oligarch. A lawyer for Columbus Nova, in a statement on Tuesday, described the money as a consulting fee that had nothing to do with Mr. Vekselberg.

References to the transactions first appeared in a document posted to Twitter on Tuesday by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the adult film star who was paid $130,000 by Essential Consultants to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Mr. Trump. The lawyer’s seven-page document, titled “Preliminary Report of Findings,” does not explain the source of his information but describes in detail dates, dollar amounts and parties involved in various dealings by Mr. Cohen and his company. Most of the transactions involved two banks: First Republic Bank and City National Bank.

Mr. Cohen also used the company to collect $250,000 after arranging payments in 2017 and 2018 by a major Republican donor, Elliott Broidy, to a former Playboy model he allegedly impregnated, according to news reports last month.

• Novartis Investments S.A.R.L., a subsidiary of Novartis, the multinational pharmaceutical giant based in Switzerland 
• Korea Aerospace Industries, an aircraft manufacturer, has partnered with the American defense contractor Lockheed Martin
• AT&T, whose proposed merger with Time Warner is pending before the Justice Department

Trump attorney Cohen is being investigated for possible bank fraud, campaign finance violations, according to a person familiar with the case

The raid came as part of an investigation referred by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to federal prosecutors in New York, according to Stephen Ryan, an attorney for Cohen.

www.washingtonpost.com

FBI agents on Monday raided Cohen’s Manhattan office, home and hotel room as part of the investigation, seizing records about Cohen’s clients and personal finances. Among the records seized were those related to a 2016 payment Cohen made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump, according to another person familiar with the investigators’ work.

Investigators took Cohen’s computer, phone and personal financial records as part of the search of his office at Rockefeller Center, the second person said.

The broad seizure collected communications between Cohen and his clients — including some with Trump, according to both people.

Trump lawyer's $130K payout to porn actress was "illegal," says former election official

Michael Cohen paid adult actress Stormy Daniels for her silence over an alleged affair with the president.

www.newsweek.com

The payment of the money just creates an enormous legal mess for I think Trump, for Cohen and anyone else who was involved in this in the campaign. ... It's a $130,000 in-kind contribution by Cohen to the Trump campaign, which is about $126,500 above what he's allowed to give. And if he does this on behalf of his client, the candidate, that is a coordinated, illegal, in-kind contribution by Cohen for the purpose of influencing the election, of benefiting the candidate by keeping this secret.

—  Trevor Potter, chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) under George H.W. Bush. He’s now the president of the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center, which supports the enforcement of campaign finance laws.