President Trump’s former lawyer and ‘fixer,’ Michael Cohen, made a $50,000 ‘election-related’ payment to a mysterious technology company during the 2016 election.
According to court documents release by prosecutors with the Southern District of New York, Cohen made the payments for ‘tech services… during and in connection with the campaign.’
Lanny Davis, Cohen’s defense lawyer, told CNN in an interview Wednesday evening that he doesn’t know what the payment was for. Davis added that he has yet to talk to his client about it.
Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer to U.S. President Donald Trump, exits from federal court in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018
Knowledge of the payment was first revealed after Cohen plead guilty to eight felony counts in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday, according to CNBC.
The identity of the company and the specific services rendered still remains unclear.
This latest revelation suggests that Cohen had a larger role in Trump’s 2016 campaign other than paying off women alleging affairs with the President.
The way Cohen reported the $50,000 payment to the Trump Organization in January 2017 has also raised eyebrows.
Forgoing traditional channels to make the tech company payment, prosecutors say Cohen provided no paperwork for the transaction, instead jotting down a handwritten sum at the top of a bank document.
The Trump Organization, the Trump campaign nor the White House respond to requests for comment.
It is still not known when Cohen made the payment, only that it was made during the 2016 campaign, according to CNBC, adding that it remains unclear if the payment was illegal.
Cohen is not believed to have been apart of the Trump campaign’s digital operation, which was run by online marketing specialist named Brad Parscale.
Parscale now holds the top digital operations job for Trump’s expected 2020 campaign.
Given that Cohen never held a formal title on the campaign, let alone in the digital operations arm, the mystery as to why the New York lawyer was making payments for tech services has only deepened.
Lanny Davis (R), Cohen’s defense lawyer, told CNN in an interview Wednesday evening that he doesn’t know what the payment was for
Knowledge of the payment was first revealed after Cohen plead guilty to eight felony counts in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday
Davis said in an interview on Tuesday that his client ‘is happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows, not just about the obvious possibility of a conspiracy to collude and corrupt the American democracy system in the 2016 election … but also, knowledge about the computer crime of hacking and whether or not Mr. Trump knew ahead of time about that crime and even cheered it on.’
It is worth noting that there is currently no evidence indicating that the $50,000 in services Cohen bought from the anonymous tech company were in any way related to Russia.
Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to campaign finance violations related to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal as well as his former boss – and said he did so ‘at the direction’ of Trump.
Although he didn’t mention Trump by name, Cohen spoke in open court about a $130,000 payment as well as a deal he helped negotiate with a publisher involving McDougal.
Both women claim they had affairs with Trump, and both got payments, Daniels from Cohen directly and McDougal from a publisher.
Cohen made his plea in open court within minutes of a Virginia jury convicting former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on eight counts following his trial on tax and fraud charges.
Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to campaign finance violations related to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal (pictured)
Both women claim they had affairs with Trump, and both got payments, Stormy Daniels (pictured) from Cohen directly and McDougal from a publisher