AT&T likely paid $600,000 to Cohen LLC

[deminks]

Much more than reported last night.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-daniels-at-t/att-payments-to-trump-lawyer-more-than-reported-source-idUSKBN1IA2KK

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AT&T Inc paid Essential Consultants, a company set up by President Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, more than the $200,000 that came to light late on Tuesday, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

AT&T confirmed the $200,000 payment late on Tuesday, saying it hoped to gain “insights” into the new administration at a time when the telecommunications company sought approval for a major merger, among other issues.

Payments by AT&T, which could total as much as $600,000, were revealed by porn actress Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, who also said a company owned by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg and other corporations had paid Essential Consultants for certain services.

(snip)

However, the contract was for a year, the source told Reuters, meaning AT&T likely paid more than $200,000 to Cohen’s company. A full year contract for $50,000 per month would total $600,000. The source declined to give a total for the payments made by AT&T to Cohen’s company.

(end snip)

[democratisphere]

1. Pay to Play on a grand scale.

So much corruption with this administration.

[wasupaloopa]

2. I don't have $200K to buy some insight into the administration. Supposedly it is free using the free

press

[sunonmars]

3. say what it means....pay for access or information or favors. Someones going to jail.

[snowybirdie]

4. I wonder how

a huge public company like AT&T was able to find a brand new LLC, with no employees or advertising or media outlets to pay for "consulting"?

[fescuerescue]

6. Well in fairness, it doesn't work that way.

I'm a consultant. I have an LLC. Only one employee and that's me. I don't advertise, nor do I even have a website.

I however, have a contract with a large automotive company, and a multi-state hospital system. My revenues are in the same range as those in question between ATT and whats his name.

In my case, how did that happen? Through my personal network. People that knew me and knew people at these two companies connected us. US. Not the LLC.

When we negotiated my fees and agreed to move forward, I requested that they make payments to my LLC and use the taxid of my LLC...NOT me personally. Why? tax purposes and liability limitations (i.e. the L and L part of LLC)

This is a pretty common in the consulting world.

(Note: I do cyber security consulting. Not political nor legal stuff. but consulting, if its really consulting is usually done this way)

[Cognitive_Resonance]

5. Who else was AT&T paying for these "services"?

AT&T alluded to engaging other entities for similar purposes. That's fertile ground for uncovering additional chicanery. Hopefully the prosecutors in SDNY are on that, and using all available leverage for AT&T to come clean.

Avenatti has obviously has insight into the account that was also used to payoff Ms. Clifford (aka Stormy), but there were undoubtedly others. Assuming the money was wired to Ms. Clifford's account, I'm guessing Avenatti engaged an investigative resource with access to the transfer records for Cohen's Essential Consultants account based on the source routing and account numbers. If he has access to similar information for other Cohen payees through separate shell companies and accounts it could lead to new disclosures of corporate and Russian origin payments.