The British Broadcasting System (BBC) just reported that Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen received a $400,000 payment from Ukraine last June to set up a meeting between Trump and the Ukrainian president. The payment was kept secret until now according to BBC confidential sources in Kiev.
Ukraine’s president is Petro Poroshenko, and he used intermediaries also to deal with Cohen to make the payment and to fix the meeting with the American president. Cohen has never been registered as a representative of Ukraine as is required under federal law.
The meeting between the two leaders took place at the White House in June of 2017, just five months after Trump took the oath of office and became President of the United States.
Sources said that after Poroshenko returned to his country the Ukrainian agency in charge of fighting corruption completely stopped the investigation it had under way into the actions of Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.
According to the BBC they spoke to two knowledgeable sources in Kiev, and the second source gave the same details about the arrangement between Poroshenko and Cohen. The second source, however, said the total paid to Cohen was $600,000.
Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti had previously given similar information, although without the accompanying details. According to Avenatti, Suspicious Activity Reports filed by Michael Cohen’s bank with the United States Treasury Department showed Cohen receiving significant amounts of money from “Ukrainian interests”.
A senior intelligence official in Kiev also told BBC that Cohen received help from Felix Sater, a convicted former mobster and Trump business partner.
A brief “drop in” meeting had previously been scheduled between Trump and the Ukrainian president, but Poroshenko wanted a longer discussion and more face time with the American president. According to the sources, Cohen’s fee was paid in order to make sure that Poroshenko had enough time with Trump to have substantial talks.
Representatives of both Cohen and Poroshenko have denied that any payment to Cohen ever took place.
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