Michael Cohen reportedly pursued Moscow Trump Tower deep into campaign, asked Qatar for $1 million
"I'm not going to just roll over," Michael Cohen has told friends as he fumes and despairs over the barrage of unflattering headlines about him and his legal woes, Vanity Fair reports. He also confides: "I just can't take this anymore." Wednesday evening brought a slew of new revelations, including reports that two suspicious bank activity reports on Cohen are mysteriously missing, he worked to get a Trump Tower in Moscow built far later than previously disclosed, the FBI is investigating his payments from a South Korean state-owned aerospace firm, and he solicited what appears to be a $1 million bribe from Qatar.
Cohen told Congress last summer that he had given up on the Moscow Trump Tower project in January 2016. But congressional investigators and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team have obtained text messages and emails showing that Cohen actively pursued the project as late as May 2016, as then-candidate Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, Yahoo News reports.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Separately, The Washington Post and The Intercept report that Cohen solicited at least $1 million from Qatar for access to Trump and help with U.S. government projects on the sidelines of a Dec. 12, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower. Cohen first asked for the payment a few days earlier when he met Qatari investment fund executive Ahmed al-Rumaihi at a hotel, Rumaihi told The Washington Post on Wednesday. "He just threw it out there" as a cost of "doing business," he said, and after he refused, Cohen asked again as the two men waited outside a Trump Tower meeting.
-
The Week Unwrapped: Have televised confessions quelled protests in Iran?Podcast Plus, why has Elon Musk turned from Mars to the Moon? And will the BBC prove to be a puzzles champ?
-
The week’s best photosIn Pictures An Andean god, a rogue squirrel, and more
-
9 products to jazz up your letters and cardsThe Week Recommends Get the write stuff
-
House votes to end Trump’s Canada tariffsSpeed Read Six Republicans joined with Democrats to repeal the president’s tariffs
-
Bondi, Democrats clash over Epstein in hearingSpeed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi ignored survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and demanded that Democrats apologize to Trump
-
El Paso airspace closure tied to FAA-Pentagon standoffSpeed Read The closure in the Texas border city stemmed from disagreements between the Federal Aviation Administration and Pentagon officials over drone-related tests
-
Judge blocks Trump suit for Michigan voter rollsSpeed Read A Trump-appointed federal judge rejected the administration’s demand for voters’ personal data
-
US to send 200 troops to Nigeria to train armySpeed Read Trump has accused the West African government of failing to protect Christians from terrorist attacks
-
Grand jury rejects charging 6 Democrats for ‘orders’ videoSpeed Read The jury refused to indict Democratic lawmakers for a video in which they urged military members to resist illegal orders
-
Judge rejects California’s ICE mask ban, OKs ID lawSpeed Read Federal law enforcement agents can wear masks but must display clear identification
-
Lawmakers say Epstein files implicate 6 more menSpeed Read The Trump department apparently blacked out the names of several people who should have been identified
