May 17, 2018

WEDNESDAY:

Wednesday Was a Busy and Bad News Day for Michael Cohen. Here's What We Learned. (ELLIOT HANNON, MAY 16, 2018, Slate)

• Michael Cohen allegedly told Qatari investor Ahmed Al-Rumaihi in 2016, when Al-Rumaihi was running a $100 billion Qatari government investment fund, that he'd have to pay Cohen a personal $1 million "fee" in order to be considered for the Trump administration's planned infrastructure initiative.

• A law enforcement whistleblower came forward to the New Yorker to take responsibility for a leaked financial document called a suspicious-activity report filed by Cohen's bank about his shady transactions because, according to the official, other damning suspicious-activity reports in a Treasury Department database appeared to be disappearing--or being erased.

• The FBI is investigating the circumstances surrounding a $150,000 deal between Cohen and South Korean aerospace firm Korea Aerospace Industries made after the 2016 election.

• A new cache of Cohen's text messages reportedly show the Trump lawyer was actively trying to strike a deal on a Trump Tower in Moscow as late as May 2016 as Trump was wrapping up the Republican nomination. According to the messages, Cohen was also considering a trip to Moscow for high-level meetings with government and business leaders. Cohen told Congress he gave up on the project much earlier in January 2016.

• President Trump's new financial disclosure forms, released Wednesday, included--for the first time--more than $100,000 in payments to Cohen in 2017. The reason for the payment was not disclosed, but its sudden appearance seems to indicate not only that Trump knew about the hush payment to Stormy Daniels, but reimbursed Cohen, meaning both Cohen and Trump have been lying.

Posted by at May 17, 2018 4:26 AM

  

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