Media trying to paint POTUS as 'swamp'?

[enhanced_deficit]

This is a bit surprising twist if not fakenews:


According to Avenatti's memo, pharmaceutical company Novartis made four separate payments of $99,980 to the Essential Consultants bank account in late 2017 to early 2018;


"Following these payments, reports surfaced that Mr. Trump took a dinner with the incoming CEO of Novartis before Mr. Trump's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in late January 2018," Avenatti's report said.


Cohen established the firm Essential Consultants in the weeks leading up to Election Day to make a $130,000 payment to Daniels, as a part of an agreement to prevent the porn star from discussing her alleged affair with Trump.





Stormy Daniels' lawyer: US company linked to Russian oligarch paid $500,000 to Cohen

By MJ Lee, Kara Scannell and Marshall Cohen, CNN
Tue May 8, 2018


https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/180416105724-02-michael-cohen-04-13-2018-medium-plus-169.jpg (https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/08/politics/robert-mueller-russian-oligarch-payments-michael-cohen/index.html)
Exclusive: Mueller's team questions Russian oligarch about payments to Cohen (https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/08/politics/robert-mueller-russian-oligarch-payments-michael-cohen/index.html)

AT&T confirmed the payments in a statement to CNN. "Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration," the company said. "They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017."

Adding to the intrigue: The payments were made to the same bank account that Cohen had created in 2016 to execute the now infamous hush payment to Daniels, Avenatti said.

CNN has reviewed documents that appear to show these payments. CNN has not independently authenticated the documents.

Cohen established the firm Essential Consultants in the weeks leading up to Election Day to make a $130,000 payment to Daniels, as a part of an agreement to prevent the porn star from discussing her alleged affair with Trump.

The White House has repeatedly denied that Trump and Daniels had an affair.

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/180504102010-02-donald-trump-0504-medium-plus-169.jpg (https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/07/politics/donald-trump-russia-investigation-obstruction/index.html)

He was also asked about roughly $300,000 in political donations Intrater made to Trump's inauguration and victory funds and the Republican National Committee in 2017, sources told CNN. The donations were unusual for Intrater, who previously donated a combined $3,800 to two candidates, one Republican and one Democrat. Intrater was also interviewed by the special counsel's team, according to sources.

According to Avenatti's memo, pharmaceutical company Novartis made four separate payments of $99,980 to the Essential Consultants bank account in late 2017 to early 2018; Korea Aerospace Industries made a single payment of $150,000 in November 2017; and AT&T made four payments of $50,000 from late 2017 to early 2018.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/08/politics/daniels-lawyer-russian-oligarch-payment-cohen/index.html



Related

Even Foxnews hosts starting to turn on MAGA? (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?522014-Even-Foxnews-hosts-starting-to-turn-on-MAGA&)

[Schifference]

What about cash in and cash out of Clinton Foundation?

[enhanced_deficit]

Top of Drudge today:




https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTm-dxgPjefr1RIOgdyuoLoWkd3m81zEPtpZ3kU3EChSO22z9I8
Cohen, touting access to president, convinced companies to pay millions... (https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Mueller-questioned-Novartis-payment-to-Trump-12900867.php)
AT&T: Mueller contacted us... (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-cohen-at-t/att-says-it-cooperated-with-russia-probe-special-counsel-in-cohen-case-idUSKBN1IA3J9)
NOVARTIS: Mueller contacted us... (http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/robert-mueller-novartis-michael-cohen-donald-trump-stormy-daniels)
Feds Investigate Bank Info Leak... (https://nypost.com/2018/05/09/feds-probing-how-stormy-lawyer-got-cohens-banking-info/)
Firm That Paid Stormy Enmeshed in Probes... (https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-firm-that-paid-stormy-daniels-hush-money-became-enmeshed-in-federal-probes-1525944601)
Special Counsel Questions BLACKWATER Founder Erik Prince... (https://www.thedailybeast.com/special-counsel-muellers-team-questioned-blackwater-founder-erik-prince/)






http://www.drudgereport.com/i/logo9.gif




What about cash in and cash out of Clinton Foundation?

Good question. There were MAGA linked 'drain the swamp, 'lock her up' type movements before the election but lately not much mention of those in news.

[TheCount]

What about cash in and cash out of Clinton Foundation?

What about the movies coming out this weekend?

[enhanced_deficit]

What about the movies coming out this weekend?

Not this weekend but some political movies coming out in near future.



Roger Ailes Biographer Hired to Script Trump Movie
Signature Reads May 3, 2018

Stormy Daniels lawyer: Hopefully someone 'really good-looking' plays me in a Trump movie
The Hill (blog) Apr 28, 2018

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRd5esvZtuOUIVVtToXEYaZCYTcYCBq1 ibzNodAzEKkVZ50WVa8gdijHC0sbKL1T7l8gDKpt5NqZA
Donald Trump once wanted his own movie studio. So he sent Michael Cohen to Miami
Miami Herald Apr 26, 2018

[enhanced_deficit]

Media is running fast with this narrative, Trump should have some ally (not Giuliani) get out in the media and counter this narrative soon before it gets too out of control.




We’re Supposed to Believe Michael Cohen’s One-Person Shell Company Provided “Consulting” Services Worth Millions of Dollars

By Ben Mathis-Lilley
May 09, 2018

• Korean Aerospace Industries, a defense contractor, said it paid $150,000 to Essential Consultants for “legal consulting concerning accounting standards on production costs” and told the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mueller-questioned-payment-to-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen/2018/05/09/6ad3a7d6-538d-11e8-a551-5b648abe29ef_story.html?utm_term=.f5aa50126144) that it was not aware that Cohen had a connection to Donald Trump. (Cohen has represented the Trump Organization and Trump personally for more than a decade, in which time he has also acted as a Trump spokesman and campaign surrogate.)

• AT&T said in a statement (https://www.dallasnews.com/business/att/2018/05/09/want-know-facts-att-emails-employees-wake-trump-lawyer-payment-controversy) that it paid Cohen “to help us understand how the President and his administration might approach a wide range of policy issues important to the company, including regulatory reform at the FCC, corporate tax reform and antitrust enforcement.” Cohen reportedly received $600,000 (https://twitter.com/ceciliakang/status/994300689475145730) from the company.

• The Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis says it hired Cohen to “advise the company as to how the Trump administration might approach certain U.S. healthcare policy matters, including the Affordable Care Act.” Amazingly, Novartis says, it agreed to a $1.2 million contract with Cohen in February 2017 but didn’t even meet with him until a month later, at which point it “determined that [he] would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated related to U.S. healthcare policy matters” and made the decision not to “engage further” with him. (A Novartis employee told the health care publication Stat (https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2018/05/09/trumps-lawyer-cohen-fixer-novartis/) that Cohen contacted the company’s former CEO around the time of Trump’s inauguration and offered his services helping obtain “access” to Trump and his advisers. Stat notes dryly that “the employee could not explain why Novartis would have agreed to a deal with a lawyer with no background in health care and without deep Washington ties.” A spokesman for the company called its involvement with Cohen “a mistake.”)

• Columbus Nova, a New York investment firm, paid Cohen $500,000 to work as “a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures.” Columbus Nova’s CEO is the cousin of a Russian billionaire named Viktor Vekselberg who controls a holding company called the Renova Group.

So, these four entities paid a former personal-injury lawyer’s zero-employee paper company millions of dollars for advice about accounting standards, telecom reform, tax policy, antitrust law, the Affordable Care Act, and high-end investment opportunities in the same period that said company was also involved in nondisclosure payments to a pornographic actress and a Playboy playmate (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/05/08/how-money-flowed-through-michael-cohens-multi-purpose-shell-company/?utm_term=.ccc74fe003bd).


https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/michael-cohen-essential-consultants-corporate-explanations-fail-laugh-test.html

[enhanced_deficit]

Sourcing of this story is unsual, is a porn star's attorney trying to play the role of whistle blower about alleged corrupton that is only indirectly linked to the shell company that had paid her client?


South Korean firm paid Cohen $150000 as it sought contract from US government (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-south-korean-firm-cohen-government-contract-20180509-story.html)
Chicago Tribune 13h ago



Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen called Novartis' CEO promising access to the president — then they made a $1.2 million deal

Ed Silverman,
18h



President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen last year reached out to Joe Jimenez, then the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Novartis, promising help gaining access to Trump, according to an employee inside Novartis familiar with the matter.
Jimenez took the call and then instructed his team to reach a deal with Cohen. A one-year contract worth $1.2 million was signed with Cohen in February 2017.
The company took only one meeting (http://www.businessinsider.com/novartis-payments-to-michael-cohen-linked-essential-consulting-2018-5) with Cohen before realizing he wouldn't be helpful, the insider said.


The curious relationship (https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2018/05/08/novartis-paid-400000-trump-attorney/) between one of the world's biggest drugmakers and President Donald Trump's personal lawyer began early last year when Michael Cohen (https://www.statnews.com/2018/05/09/michael-cohen-trump-lawyer-novartis-questions/), a longtime fixer for the president, reached out to Novartis' then-CEO Joe Jimenez, promising help gaining access to Trump and influential officials in the new administration, according to an employee inside Novartis familiar with the matter.
Jimenez took the call and then instructed his team to reach a deal with Cohen. A one-year contract worth $1.2 million was signed with Cohen in February 2017. The company's hope was that Cohen could help it navigate a bevy of uncertain issues facing the drugmaker — from potential changes to the Affordable Care Act and tax reform to navigating reimbursement challenges for medicines.
"He reached out to us," the Novartis employee said, providing STAT with the company's version of events as it scrambles to contain the fallout from being entangled in the investigations surrounding Trump and his inner circle, including Cohen.
"With a new administration coming in, basically, all the traditional contacts disappeared, and they were all new players," this person said. "We were trying to find an inroad into the administration. Cohen promised access to not just Trump, but also the circle around him. It was almost as if we were hiring him as a lobbyist."

http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-pitched-novartis-promising-access-to-the-president-and-inner-circle-2018-5?r=UK&IR=T

[enhanced_deficit]

AT&T CEO says hiring Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was 'big mistake' (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/11/att-ceo-says-hiring-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-was-a-big-mistake-reuters.html)
COMEY PLAYS TORONTO... (https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/05/10/ex-fbi-director-james-comey-to-speak-about-book-at-event-in-toronto.html)
WSJ: About That FBI 'Source'... (https://www.wsj.com/articles/about-that-fbi-source-1525992611)
Lawmakers weigh Plan B to protect Mueller's work... (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/lawmakers-weigh-plan-b-protect-mueller-s-work-n873241)
Watergate Hangover Still Tormenting Liberals... (https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-05-11/watergate-hangover-is-still-tormenting-liberals)
Maxine Waters explodes on House floor: I resent 'making America great again'... (http://www.theamericanmirror.com/rep-waters-offended-by-call-for-unity-i-resent-making-america-great-again/)
GONZALES: The real questions and dangers of criminally charging the president... (http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/387244-the-questions-and-dangers-of-criminally-charging-a-president)





http://www.drudgereport.com/i/logo9.gif

[enhanced_deficit]

Ivanka Trump exits White House conference call after questions on Chinese trademarks (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?522750-Ivanka-Trump-exits-White-House-conference-call-after-questions-on-Chinese-trademarks&)

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--ZoZzqp7S--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/h61l7gluuwo5mdufj99c.png




By Jacqueline Alemany CBS News May 29, 2018

Ivanka Trump exits White House conference call after questions on Chinese trademarks

WASHINGTON -- While the White House press corps has figured out to employ the "listening mode" function for conference calls with reporters, the administration is still mastering the task of gracefully dodging awkward questions that officials do not want to answer.
On a background call hosted by Ivanka Trump and Holli Richmond, director of the President Trump's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, in advance of "White House Sports and Fitness Day," one of the hosts dropped off of the call after being asked to comment on her father's new exercise regimen and questions pertaining to Chinese trademarks being awarded to her fashion brand (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ivanka-trump-in-china-the-trademarks-patents-raising-an-ethics-firestorm/).
"You can refer those questions to the press office," press aide Ninio Fetalvo told reporters Tuesday after Ivanka Trump was asked to address questions about her company.
The White House did not respond to CBS News' request for comment.


The Ivanka Trump Brand Just Won a Boatload of New Trademarks in China

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/YdQcYVaWwg0PTdhdEL44xQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9ODQ7aD04NDtpbD1wbG FuZQ--/https://media.zenfs.com/creatr-images/GLB/2016-02-03/507bd910-cac5-11e5-8654-758dbb262c4b_f265146a4da2939fb88c11a40f383bd3.jpg (http://fortune.com/)
Natasha Bach
Fortune (http://fortune.com/) May 29, 2018

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/gbQ23nvCjI00LEPaWYO9wg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9ODAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/homerun/fortune_175/4e87129424aaeb277d193b6d23a45297View photos


The Ivanka Trump Brand Just Won a Boatload of New Trademarks in China

Ivanka Trump is on a trademarking frenzy in China.
The first daughter's brand has been granted 13 new trademarks in China over the last three months, for items ranging from books and cosmetics to housewares and cushions. Another eight trademarks received the provisional okay from Beijing; they’ll be finalized in three months if no objections arise during the comment period.
At first glance, these trademarks may appear somewhat unremarkable. However, some ethics experts have suggested that Trump's trademark applications may represent a conflict of interest (http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/28/news/ivanka-trump-china-trademarks/index.html), as her father remains engaged in trade negotiations with China and she herself serves as a senior advisor to the White House.
Conflict of interest?

Norm Eisen, the ethics chief under President Obama, told CNN (http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/28/news/ivanka-trump-china-trademarks/index.html) that the trademarks come at a time when the Trump administration is "making enormously consequential decisions with and about China."
“The conflict comes because we do not know if the Trump administration is making these official decisions [on China] to benefit the U.S., or to get more trademarks and other benefits for the Trump family,” he added.
"Ivanka Trump (http://fortune.com/2017/12/27/ivanka-trump-clothing-clothes-twitter-instagram-shoes-dress/)'s refusal to divest from her business is especially troubling as the Ivanka brand continues to expand its business in foreign countries," explained Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics to the AP (https://www.apnews.com/9caf2ddbbae84bd09e9d732036d667b4?utm_medium=AP_Pol itics&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&__twitter_impression=true).
"It raises significant questions about corruption, as it invites the possibility that she could be benefiting financially from her position and her father's presidency or that she could be influenced in her policy work by countries' treatment of her business."
Online records from China's trademark office reviewed by the Associated Press (https://www.apnews.com/9caf2ddbbae84bd09e9d732036d667b4?utm_medium=AP_Pol itics&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&__twitter_impression=true) show that the Ivanka Trump company applied for 17 trademarks on March 28, 2017--just a day before the first daughter and businesswoman formally took on a role in the White House. Recent documents show the brand owning 36 active trademarks in China. Eight have provisional approval, while 25 are still awaiting review, according to the AP.