Trump’s lawyer pitched himself as a fixer to Novartis and got paid $1.2 million

[Norm dePlume]

Trump’s lawyer pitched himself as a fixer to Novartis and got paid $1.2 million

The curious relationship between one of the world’s biggest drug makers and President Trump’s personal lawyer began early last year when Michael Cohen, a longtime fixer for the president, reached out to Novartis’s then-chief executive officer Joe Jimenez, promising help gaining access to Trump and influential officials in the new administration, according to an employee inside Novartis familiar with the matter.

Jimenez took the call and then instructed his team to reach a deal with Cohen. A one-year contract worth $1.2 million was signed with Cohen in February 2017. The company’s hope was that Cohen could help it navigate a bevy of uncertain issues facing the drug maker — from potential changes to the Affordable Care Act and tax reform to navigating reimbursement challenges for medicines.

“He reached out to us,” the Novartis employee said, providing STAT with the company’s version of events as it scrambles to contain the fallout from being entangled in the investigations surrounding Trump and his inner circle, including Cohen. “With a new administration coming in, basically, all the traditional contacts disappeared and they were all new players. We were trying to find an inroad into the administration. Cohen promised access to not just Trump, but also the circle around him. It was almost as if we were hiring him as a lobbyist.”

...

“At first, it all sounded impressive, but toward the end of the meeting, everyone realized this was a probably a slippery slope to engage him. So they decided not to really engage Cohen for any activities after that,” the employee continued. Rather than attempt to cancel the contract, the company allowed it to lapse early in 2018 and not run the risk of ticking off the president. “It might have caused anger,” this person said.

I guess "I alone can fix it" meant "I'll get my fixer in on it."

[scott]

Is any of this illegal or against ethical policies?

[Norm dePlume]

I'm not sure about the legalities, but it's a pretty odd version of "drain the swamp."

It's also an indication of how smart Cohen is, using the same shell corp for paying hush money to the porn star and receiving fees for access from client companies.

[Norm dePlume]

Best government money can buy.

[scott]

I'm not sure about the legalities, but it's a pretty odd version of "drain the swamp."

Ah. The hypocrisy angle. "Republicans don't live up to the standards they set so they are bad - Democrats don't have standards so they are good."

It's also an indication of how smart Cohen is, using the same shell corp for paying hush money to the porn star and receiving fees for access from client companies.

Get back to me when any of that is illegal. Oh and if it's a corporation that accepts fees and pays expenses it's not a "shell" corporation. Shell corporations are companies that don't do anything except shelter money from personal debts, they have no business operations. Actively contracting services and paying expenses are business operations.

[scott]

Best government money can buy.

Only because Hillary lost.

[Norm dePlume]

Ah. The hypocrisy angle. "Republicans don't live up to the standards they set so they are bad - Democrats don't have standards so they are good."



Get back to me when any of that is illegal. Oh and if it's a corporation that accepts fees and pays expenses it's not a "shell" corporation. Shell corporations are companies that don't do anything except shelter money from personal debts, they have no business operations. Actively contracting services and paying expenses are business operations.

What goods or services does Essential Consultants (Cohen's company) provide?

[Norm dePlume]

Here, I'll handle that for you (you might want to do some stretching exercises before trying to wrap your credulity around this):

Here are all the services Essential Consultants has been credited with providing.

Accounting Services
Korea Aerospace Industries, a South Korean defense contractor, confirmed Wednesday it hired Essential Consultants for $150,000 to advise on accounting issues.

But the company insisted it never talked to Cohen, a CNN reporter said Wednesday.

A company spokesman told Bloomberg the single payment was legal. KAI is jointly trying to land a $16 billion contract with Lockeed Martin to sell training jets to the U.S. Air Force.

Healthcare Policy
Swiss drug company Novartis said it previous CEO signed a one-year contract with Essential, from February 2017 to February 2018, "focused on U.S. health-care policy matters."

But Novartis stopped using Cohen and Essential after one meeting a month into the contract, because they were "unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated related to US healthcare policy matters." The company couldn't break it's $100,000-per-month contract, however, until the year was up.

Avenatti's documents showed Essential received $400,000 from Novartis, which admitted to meeting with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe in November 2017.

‘Insights’
AT&T admitted it hired Essential as one of several advisers to get "insights into understanding the new administration."

The documents released by Avenatti showed AT&T paid Essential $200,000 from October 2017 to February 2018.

Payoffs to porn stars
Until this week, Essential was mainly known as the entity used to pay off Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

The X-rated actress signed the agreement with Essential under the pseudonym Peggy Peterson — later suing President Trump for allegedly not signing the pact under the name David Dennison.

Cohen admitted to making the $130,000 payment with money from a home equity line of credit — denying the money came from Trump or the campaign.

But Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani indicated on Fox News last week that the President reimbursed Cohen, which the White House later said happened through standard legal fees and expenditures.

[scott]

What goods or services does Essential Consultants (Cohen's company) provide?

Consulting.

You should stop being such an amateur with your descriptions.

[scott]

Here, I'll handle that for you (you might want to do some stretching exercises before trying to wrap your credulity around this):

Funny.

"We have no standards so when do the same thing it's okay."

"But damn you asshole Republicans for doing it."

[Tom Servo]

If this was a Democrat doing this, you people would be howling at the moon at the injustice of such skullduggery. But it's a Republican, so I guess it gets a pass, despite "drain the swamp". The only way the swamp was drained was displacement when the biggest alligator in town plopped down to sun himself.

[scott]

If this was a Democrat doing this, you people would be howling at the moon at the injustice of such skullduggery. But it's a Republican, so I guess it gets a pass, despite "drain the swamp". The only way the swamp was drained was displacement when the biggest alligator in town plopped down to sun himself.

Please find any post here howling about Anita Dunn.

Prove your statement.

[Newman]

If this was a Democrat doing this, you people would be howling at the moon at the injustice of such skullduggery. But it's a Republican, so I guess it gets a pass, despite "drain the swamp". The only way the swamp was drained was displacement when the biggest alligator in town plopped down to sun himself.

Good image.

I'm beginning to think Trump has carefully avoided most of the skullduggery we attach in our imagination to successful swamp navigators. Certainly there has been a sustained, concerted effort to uncover any and every unseemly thing.

(How's that for reversing the routine defense of Hillary Clinton's career?)

One significant difference is that Trump has changed careers from private to public service; Hillary has always been in the public arena.

When people go bad they get trapped. Gangbangers often say you can't quit. A once-friend of mine who got involved with crooked union bosses could never get out. His "Hotel California" was the federal pen in TN somewhere.

If Trump were a greasy player in the urban construction biz, my guess is he would have stayed there. And why not? He made a fortune.

NeverTrumpers may have a different take on this.

[Norm dePlume]

Another interesting piece to the puzzle.

Russia-linked company that hired Michael Cohen registered alt-right websites during election

A company at the center of widening questions involving President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen is listed as the organization behind a string of websites targeted toward white nationalists and other members of the alt-right.

Columbus Nova, a company whose U.S. chief executive, Andrew Intrater, and Russian investment partner Viktor Vekselberg have both reportedly been interviewed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team, is listed as the registrant behind a handful of domains for websites named after the alt-right that were created during the 2016 election.

It is unclear if any of these websites were launched or ever hosted content.

These sites include Alt-right.co, Alternate-right.com, Alternate-rt.com, Alt-rite.com, and other similar combinations, which were all registered in the two days following a speech given by then candidate Hillary Clinton in August 2016 in which she excoriated the far-right movement known for its extremist, racist, anti-Semitic and sexist viewpoints. The sites are not currently operational.

[scott]

Another interesting piece to the puzzle.

"It is unclear if any of these websites were launched or ever hosted content."

Actually it is clear. None of those websites ever hosted content. Zip, zero, nada on any archival sites.