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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMarshall - TPM - "Tonight's Staggering Revelations"
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/tonights-staggering-revelationsTonight we have what Id say may be the most staggering revelations since the tangle of Trump/Russia investigations began almost two years ago. This is not hyperbole.
Late this afternoon Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti posted what he called a Preliminary Report on financial transactions of Michael Cohen. The claims were staggering. But this wasnt a legal filing in which the attorneys in question need to vouch for their accuracy. For all the fancy language it was simply a press release, with no clear explanation of the basis for the various claims. (Its an example of how TPM is in many ways a much more conservative operation than many mainstream media publications. Bloomberg for instance published basically all the claims even though they were clear that it could not independently verify them. To be clear, this is not necessarily a criticism. These are fact sets for which there is little obvious precedent.) In any case, the key claims are now being confirmed in most cases to the letter.
The most important ones are that a Russian oligarch paid more than $500,000 into the shell company that Cohen earlier used to make his payment to Stormy Daniels. The money is nominally from the US affiliate of Viktor Vekselbergs holding company. But this is a direct connection. AT&T made payments totaling $200,000. Novartis, the drug manufacturer, chipped in almost $400,000. In what still must be considered preliminary reporting, The New York Times now says that transactions totaling at least $4.4 million flowed into Essential Consultants LLC, the shell company Cohen used as the vehicle to pay Stormy Daniels and then later used to arrange another hush agreement at least nominally for billionaire Elliott Broidy, a then-RNC deputy finance chair who is tied up in the Trump/Russia probe through fixer George Nader. The payments all end in January 2018. Thats when the name Essential Consultants LLC was first published by The Wall Street Journal as part of the Stormy Daniels story.
In other words, just through this single shell company Cohen was receiving major payments from a Russian oligarch and additional moneys from various Fortune 500 companies looking for access to President Trump. On the US corporate side these are classic off-the-books pay-for-play payments to what appears to have been a slush fund. If youve spent any time covering political scandals you cant look even at these initial details and not think this is the kind of story that sends a bunch of people to prison.
snip - more at the above link
GusBob
(7,286 posts)There's more for sure.
tblue37
(65,488 posts)MyOwnPeace
(16,937 posts)to see how that orange hair matches the special suits he gets to wear for his "service" to our country?
GusBob
(7,286 posts)Admit to the amounts and everything?
BSdetect
(8,999 posts)WhiteTara
(29,722 posts)GusBob
(7,286 posts)The information is accurate
But still one would think they would offer no comment at best
Unless they think they have done no wrong?
Asking cuz I dont know
WhiteTara
(29,722 posts)and ATT has so much baggage, I guess they thought if they got it out now, they would escape scathing public comments?
honest.abe
(8,685 posts)Follow the money. I dont see how the Trump mob can escape this.
Stuart G
(38,445 posts)We will watch along..
calimary
(81,466 posts)Ive been asking myself for awhile now - how is this NOT collusion?
babylonsister
(171,091 posts)Seriously, you can't freakin' blink!
AllyCat
(16,222 posts)I cannot even follow it anymore.
dalton99a
(81,570 posts)Pepsidog
(6,254 posts)Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Almost like he is on the Mueller case and just happened to hook up with stormy to help her. NOT the other way around.
ffr
(22,671 posts)ffr
(22,671 posts)blake2012
(1,294 posts)As riveting as all of this is, unless Trump ends up resigning or is thrown into prison, I dont care. Trump is a madman and needs to be gone.