The White House is laying low, still likely stunned at the pace of developments with respect to Michael Cohen, and clearly unaware that such information would be made public. Today, the White House had no comment when asked if President Donald Trump was aware of payments to his attorney, Michael Cohen, by a number of companies, including a firm linked to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. In other words, the White House did not say that it had been unaware that such payments were being made through the last year.
CNBC correspondent Eamon Javers said that he was rebuffed by the White House communications team after he asked an official to respond to a report from attorney Michael Avenatti claiming that Cohen received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Columbus Nova, which is run by the cousin of Vekselberg
Avenatti, represents Stormy Daniels, the porn star alleged to have had (her story) or not had (his story) sex with Trump in 2006. Avenattie also alleges that millions were paid into Cohen’s account by companies like AT&T and Novartis after Trump won the 2016 election.
I need to stop this here for a brief moment and give a huge wtf? Millions were paid into Cohen’s account by companies like AT&T and Novartis? This is the United States of America! We don’t give “winners of elections” millions of dollars from our largest companies like some military junta on a tropical island. Dear reader, be assured that whilst you are completing this article, your faithful blogger will be researching the question as to what the fuck AT&T and Novatis were doing dumping money into an account like some Russian criminal billionaire oligarch, for godsake.
“I asked a White House official this morning whether the president knew about those payments between a number of entities and Michael Cohen, the president’s personal attorney, that took place both before and after the election,” Javers reported on Wednesday. “The White House [is] not responding to that question, referring questions on this issue to the president’s personal legal team, which also hasn’t responded to questions.”
In other words, the White House did not say, “No, the president had no idea these payments were being made …” nor did the White House say “The president is just now hearing the accusations and needs time to evaluate the accusations prior to ….” The response seems to be that of an entity which just learned that it has been caught, and is keeping its head down, trying for form a coherent strategy. Good idea, since they haven’t done too well lately, ahem, cough, Rudy, when addressing new legal accusations.
This is too big to bundle, and perhaps that is why we have yet to hear a denial.
