President Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, reportedly signed a $1.2 million contract with drugmaker Novartis in February 2017 on the promise that he could help the company gain access to the president and administration insiders. "He reached out to us," a Novartis employee told Stat, adding: "It was almost as if we were hiring him as a lobbyist."
On Tuesday night, The New York Times initially reported that Cohen's Essential Consultants LLC had at least $4.4 million pass through it, including $500,000 from Columbus Nova, a New York investment firm with deep ties to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Documents provided by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, showed some $400,000 from Novartis passed through Essential Consultants between early 2017 and 2018. Vekselberg and officials at Novartis have reportedly been interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team.
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