Stormy Daniels' lawyer: Cohen was paid $500K by Putin-tied company after election

I used the title from the article in The Hill:

Stormy Daniels’s attorney Michael Avenatti said Tuesday that President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen received $500,000 in the months after the 2016 election from a company run by a Russian oligarch with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Avenatti said that the funding may have been used to reimburse the $130,000 payment Cohen made to Daniels to stay quiet about her alleged affair with Trump.

Avenatti released a document his firm has entitled "Preliminary Report on Findings" which details a number of curious deposits into an account setup by Cohen weeks before the $130k hush money payment was made from it to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her from talking about spanking Trump with a rolled up Forbes among many other hilarious details of their tryst.

What's less humorous are where these monies came from. To that I'll turn to Mr. Avenatti's report:

Chief among these suspicious financial transactions are approximately $500,000 in payments received from Mr. Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian Oligarch with an estimated net worth of nearly $13 Billion. Myr. Vekselberg and his cousin Mr. Andrew Intrater routed eight payments to Mr. Cohen through a company named Columbus Nova LLC ("Columbus") beginning in January 2017 and continuing until at least August 2017.

Vekselberg is very close to Putin and is currently sanctioned (as of last month) by the United States government. He was stopped by the Mueller team in March upon arrival at a NY area airport.

Intrater shows up in pieces about Russian donations to Trump because he donated $250k to Trump's inaugural committee which apparently bought him special access to a dinner with policy discussion from incoming cabinet members.

Money came into this account from a number of other interesting sources:

- Also included in these suspicious financial transactions are four payments in late 2017 and early 2018 totaling $399,920 made by global pharmaceutical giant Novartis directly to Essential in four separate transactions of $99,980 each (just below $100,00). Following these payments, reports surfaced that Mr. Trump took a dinner meeting with the incoming CEO of Novartis before Mr. Trump's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in late January 2018.

- In addition, Essential received $200,000 in four separate payments of $50,000 in late 2017 and early 2018 from AT&T.

- Essential also received a $150,000 payment in November 2017 from Korea Aerospace Industries LTD.

According to paperwork filed with the bank as part of its anti-laundering practices, Essential (Essential Consultants, LLC, a DE corp wholly owned and controlled by Cohen) is a real estate consulting company.

A couple observations:

While the transactions in of themselves do not prove anything untoward, it doesn't seem likely that they're actually for real estate consulting work that Michael Cohen did. In fact, it smells a bit like lobbying payments. Columbus Nova is the US investment arm of Renova Group which is Russian conglomerate based in Moscow. Novartis is Swiss. If these are lobbying payments, it could also mean that Cohen has not only been an unregistered lobbyist but a unregistered foreign lobbyist.

Noticeably absent is any mention of transactions from Trump to repay the hush money payment.

I wonder if this will turn out like the last story from this guy, where MSNBC had to pull their story.

More fake news might damage his credibility.

a reply to: theantediluvian

But I thought the investigation was about campaign funds being used to pay her?

So which is it?

wait, why would Trump risk losing everything for 500k??

doesn't make sense and how would this guy know this?

a reply to: theantediluvian

Why would Stormy Daniel's attorney be this deeply involved in the Russia-Collusion investigation?

I smell a rat. A FAKE NEWS rat.

a reply to: watchitburn

What investigation are you talking about? This is stuff that has been released by Stormy Daniels's lawyer from their own investigation.

So Trump AND Putin PAID THE GUY SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD SCAM!!

a reply to: butcherguy

When did that happen?

This is the worst deal ever made for the united states
made by the worst negotiators ... ever

Did Trump get his stump pitches mixed up ?

a reply to: butcherguy

I wonder if this will turn out like the last story from this guy, where MSNBC had to pull their story.

I could be mistaken, but I don't believe Avenatti was the source of the MSNBC story where they made the rather significant f up of mistaking wiretap with pen register/trap and trace.

More fake news might damage his credibility.

It could. Or... maybe like Trump, his credibility won't ever suffer among those who want to believe him no matter how much "fake news" he puts out.

Oh right. I thought Mueller handed the Cohen investigation off because it was nothing to do with the Russia collusion investigation? Or was that last week's story. I can't keep up with your propaganda.

I like how every Russian that does business in the US now has close ties to Putin - oh as long as they work with anyone associated to Trump. These Russians must be a bit dim. They tried to influence the election by paying out some money after the election was won. I guess they haven't fully got the hang of it yet.

Nice MSNBC/ CNN rehash, though.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: watchitburn

What investigation are you talking about? This is stuff that has been released by Stormy Daniels's lawyer from their own investigation.

So just because it is a lawyer saying it's true we should believe it without proof?

Christ, it's corrupt judges and lawyers who protect dirty cops, and I thought we all hated lawyers? lmao

Just watching this tool speak triggers my BS detector.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: butcherguy

I wonder if this will turn out like the last story from this guy, where MSNBC had to pull their story.

I could be mistaken, but I don't believe Avenatti was the source of the MSNBC story where they made the rather significant f up of mistaking wiretap with pen register/trap and trace.

More fake news might damage his credibility.

It could. Or... maybe like Trump, his credibility won't ever suffer among those who want to believe him no matter how much "fake news" he puts out.

You might have better luck getting people to believe you if you stopped posting "Trump's uncle's son's lawyer's girlfriend's mother-in-law's stepson's hairdresser's grandfather is Russian" stories.

a reply to: theantediluvian

This is what I read in your OP.... "Putin paid Vekselberg to pay Cohen to pay Trump $500,000 post-election therefore Russian collusion - impeachment o'clock."

Shouldn't Trump have paid Cohen to pay Vekselberg to pay Putin $500,000 for swaying approx 50% of the US voters to vote for Trump via 3 vodka companies and 13 Russian hookers on the internet?

This payment / collusion / treason / Russia / Trump / Impeach stuff is real confusin' the way the TVs have spun it - not so confusing when viewed from the perspective that the entire 'Trump and Russia colluded' is made-up fake non-existent BS.

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: theantediluvian

Why would Stormy Daniel's attorney be this deeply involved in the Russia-Collusion investigation?

I smell a rat. A FAKE NEWS rat.

Who said this had anything to do with the Russian investigation or "collusion?" You see some Putin pals dropping large sums of money in an account set up to pay out hush money to women Trump cheated on Melania with and you immediately jump to collusion conclusions! Tsk tsk!

This information clearly did not come from the Mueller investigation. I don't have a clue what the laws are in regards to publishing details from bank records obtained through subpoena (if that's where the info came from) but I'm guessing Avenatti does.

Whatever the case may be, for the sake of argument, would you like to give your thoughts about the transactions?

originally posted by: Sublimecraft
a reply to: theantediluvian

This is what I read in your OP.... "Putin paid Vekselberg to pay Cohen to pay Trump $500,000 post-election therefore Russian collusion - impeachment o'clock."

Classic 6 degrees of separation story the OP revels in. BS day after day - all one-sided. I'll wait for his expose on Podesta hiding payments from a Russian energy company... but alas, I will be waiting forever.

a reply to: Sublimecraft

This is what I read in your OP.... "Putin paid Vekselberg to pay Cohen to pay Trump $500,000 post-election therefore Russian collusion - impeachment o'clock."

Strange, because I don't remember saying anything remotely like that. What I suggested is that these transactions might actually be payments to Cohen for lobbying.

Shouldn't Trump have paid Cohen to pay Vekselberg to pay Putin $500,000 for swaying approx 50% of the US voters to vote for Trump via 3 vodka companies and 13 Russian hookers on the internet?

Trump doesn't pay for Russian hookers, they're on the house.

This payment / collusion / treason / Russia / Trump / Impeach stuff is real confusin' the way the TVs have spun it - not so confusing when viewed from the perspective that the entire 'Trump and Russia colluded' is made-up fake non-existent BS.

Most # is too complex for the a lot of peoples' attention spans which is why people like slogans.

yawn

boring

probably end up being fake news

this lawyer how did he get the info?

it doesn't matter

I don't care

the new world order thugs are a bigger threat to me than Trump they are the ones who have been in power they are responsible for all of the suffering

a reply to: UKTruth

Oh right. I thought Mueller handed the Cohen investigation off because it was nothing to do with the Russia collusion investigation? Or was that last week's story.

Huh? This has nothing to do with Mueller or the US Attorney for SDNY's/FBI's investigation. The information came from Michael Avenatti, lawyer for Stormy Daniels.

I can't keep up with your propaganda.

It's never once stopped you from speaking out of ignorance though so... kudos?

a reply to: theantediluvian

Interesting stuff. Just getting in to the specifics, but it appears AT&T confirms their payments to the lawyer.

money.cnn.com...