AFTER 2016 ELECTIONS, COMPANIES WERE ANXIOUS TO HIRE TRUMP INSIDERS

…This is the lobbyist office where Michael Cohen acquired his well-paying consulting clients

All of Cohen’s new clients were just buying access to the US President.

OK, let’s look at how Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, and his “Fixer”,  Michael Cohen, took on different levels of expertise for bringing on his group of new, high paying clients.

First, Michael sold himself as being highly knowledgeable in the nation’s health care policies.  In doing that, a global pharmaceutical company, Novartis, has since admitted that it paid Cohen, $1.2 million for providing insight into Trump’s health-care policies.  Money that they said they were required to keep paying, even after concluding that Cohen had very little to offer them on health care.  

Then Cohen sold himself as being almost a C.P.A. in accounting, as a Korean aerospace company, competing for a US military contract, has said it paid Cohen $150,000 for advise on “US accounting practices”.

Then he sold himself as having a full understanding of the Trump administration to the point that the mega telecommunications company, AT&T, has said it paid $600,000 simply to better understand the Trump administration.

Finally he showed off his expertise in New York real estate, which allowed him to bring in Columbus NOVA as a new client for $500,000 for consultation on local real estate issues.  I guess it’s just coincidence that this company has a close connection to a very wealthy Russian oligarch….?

All of this was accomplished in a lobbyist law office on the 23rd floor of New York’s Rockefeller Center.  This was where Cohen pitched potential clients on his close association with President Trump.  In these meeting he would note that he was still the president’s “personal lawyer”, he also showed photos of himself with Trump, while mentioning how frequently they spoke.  He even shared copies of news articles with potential clients that described him as the president’s “Fixer”.

The office in which he operated out of was provided by the powerhouse legal and lobbying firm, Squire Patton Boggs, which also signed Cohen to a $500,000 deal in the wake of the 2016 election.  This was where Cohen created Michael D. Cohen & Associates LLC.  And this was all a side benefit of his  affiliation with Donald J. Trump.

We all know that the reality of all of this was that Michael Cohen knew nothing about health care, or accounting practices, because what he was offering was  access to the President of the United States.

Why else would these companies pony-up these large amounts of cash to the presidents “Fixer”?

Unfortunately for Cohen, his business activities have been under investigation by both special counsel Robert S. Mueller and the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, which conducted searches of his office, home, hotel room and safe-deposit boxes on April 9.

Both teams of investigators have been comparing Cohen’s work with the president’s interests, and how Cohen’s activity flowed through Essential Consultants, a company Cohen formed in the fall of 2016.  

Late last year, the special counsel sought information from two of the companies that hired Cohen, AT&T and Novartis, and Cohen, who refinanced his Park Avenue condominium in recent days, as he faces mounting legal bills. He and his lawyer have declined to comment.

Cohen worked with his clients in two different ways: one through his limited liability corporation, Essential Consultants, and with his contract with Squire Patton Boggs.

Cohen's Essential Consultants was formed in October 2016, initially for transferring the $130,000 to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who was planning to go public with allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump. The president has denied the affair, but his attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, has said Trump reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000.

Other activities by the “consulting firm” have now become public when Daniels’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, released a report with specific bank transactions linked to Essential Consultants. The source of Avenatti’s information was unclear, but many of the payments were confirmed by the listed companies.  However, this action has prompted a Treasury Department investigation into how Avenatti obtained the material.  Cohen’s lawyers have accused Avenatti of improperly obtaining Cohen’s bank records.

However, Cohen's Essential Consultants’ most notable contract was with Columbus Nova, which is a New York-based investment firm that said it paid Cohen $500,000 back in 2017. In a statement, Columbus Nova said it is owned and managed by Americans, but they did acknowledge that it manages assets for a company controlled by the Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.

Columbus Nova said it paid Cohen to help it with investments in real estate. It said Vekselberg had nothing to do with the decision to hire Cohen. However, it’s interesting that Vekselberg, who attended Trump’s inauguration with Andrew Intrater, his cousin, which just happens to be the CEO of Columbus Nova.

A person familiar with the situation said Cohen, Intrater and Vekselberg were all seen together at Trump’s inauguration.

Cohen was able to sign up such lucrative clients because many companies at the time were extremely anxious to hire any Trump insiders. 

Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign aide opened a consulting firm, Avenue Strategies, in partnership with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.  Bennett said there was more potential business than they could handle.  “When we opened our doors, the phone just rang and rang and rang. . . . We turned a lot of business away. My guess is that anybody who was perceived as close to Trump, their phones were ringing like ours. It was like shooting fish in the barrel.”

Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, said Cohen’s work at the firm should be disclosed publicly.  This is because he was simultaneously Trump’s personal attorney that could be introducing his clients to a lobbying firm that may also have interests before the president and his administration.

“This is the swamp of Washington,” Holman said, referring to Trump’s campaign statements about draining the Washington DC political swamp. “If you are the president’s attorney, you should not be in a position to enrich oneself.”

Now, a year after Cohen had signed up many of his clients, most of those contracts are now gone.

“This has destroyed him,” said one of Cohen’s closest friends, bemoaning the behavior of those who once courted him, but have now abandoned Cohen. “The whole thing is horrible.”

Being associated with Donald Trump seems to usually end up being a curse.

Copyright G.Ater  2018