One of the overlooked portions of the Justice Department filings on Michael Cohen was the calculation of how much Cohen made selling access to Trump after the election. I previously wrote about how Cohen found willing corporations like Novartis and AT&T to give him windfall payments to curry favoritism with Trump. It turns out that Cohen made over $4 million and appears to have done little since he was quickly ensnared in scandal. These companies however were outed in what is usually the hidden, seedy underbelly of this town.
These companies gave one of the sleaziest lawyers in America millions of dollars to gain special access and influence over Trump. That is the reality of our pay-to-play political system and it is all legal. AT&T wanted to reach out and touch Trump and Cohen was eager to sell the access.
I previously wrote how anti-Trump donors rushed to give Cohen hundreds of thousands of dollars on GoFundMe in one his later scams. People were such chumps that they actually gave Cohen money after he raked in millions selling access on top of the millions that he stole through fraud and tax evasion.
The filing states:
“Cohen successfully convinced numerous major corporations to retain him as a ‘consultant’ who could provide unique insights about and access to the new administration. Some of these corporations were then stuck making large up-front or periodic payments to Cohen, even though he provided little or no real services under these contracts. Bank records reflect that Cohen made more than $4 million dollars before the contracts were terminated.”
The rogue’s gallery of influence buying corporations includes AT&T, Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, and Columbus Nova.
If you are disgusted, keep in mind that both Democrats and Republicans have profiteered from selling influence and access. What is most impressive is that Cohen shook down these companies and then seems to have simply kept the money after his long history of criminal and unethical conduct was revealed after the election.