Politics- President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen received a secret, $400,000 payment from Ukraine to help fix talks with Trump, according to a report.
- The BBC reported that the payment was set up by people acting on behalf of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
- Once Poroshenko returned to Ukraine, the nation's anti-corruption agency pumped the brakes on its investigation into Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.
President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen received a secret, $400,000 payment from Ukraine to help fix talks with Trump, the BBC reported Wednesday, citing Ukrainian sources close to those involved.
The BBC reported that the payment was set up by people acting on behalf of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Cohen was not registered as a representative of Ukraine, which would be required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act if such a payment took place.
Cohen received the payment ahead of Poroshenko's White House visit last June. Once Poroshenko returned to Ukraine, the BBC reported, the nation's anti-corruption agency pumped the brakes on its investigation into Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort. He has since been indicted as a part of the special counsel Robert Mueller's probe.
A high-ranking Ukrainian intelligence officer told the BBC that, prior to Poroshenko's White House visit, Cohen was brought in because the country's existing lobbyists couldn't secure a similarly in-depth Oval Office meeting with Trump. Ukrainian officials sought out a source that could provide such a meeting, landing on Cohen, who was paid $400,000.
The BBC wrote that there is no suggestion Trump knew of the payments.
Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, told the BBC that Suspicious Activity Reports filed by Cohen's bank to the Treasury Department showed money from Ukrainian interests.
Earlier this month, Avenatti released information on Cohen's financial dealings following the presidential election, showing that he accepted payments from huge corporations such as AT&T and Novartis in hopes of gaining access and garnering familiarity to Trump. Cohen did not register as a lobbyist or disclose those payments.
Cohen is currently under criminal investigation in the Southern District of New York. He has not been charged with a crime.
After The New Yorker spoke with the government official who allegedly leaked those documents to Avenatti because he said others were missing from the Treasury Department's "FinCen" database, a FinCen spokesperson said that "under longstanding procedures," the office "will limit access to certain SARs when requested by law enforcement authorities in connection with an ongoing investigation."
Avenatti was pushing earlier for the release of those additional SARs, one of which covers the time frame when the Ukrainian visit to the White House took place.
Meanwhile, Cohen and the two Ukrainians who were said to have opened a backchannel with him on behalf of Poroshenko denied the story. Cohen, the senior intelligence official told the BBC, was assisted by former Trump business partner Felix Sater. Sater's lawyer denied the story. Poroshenko's office declined comment.
The BBC reported that the Ukrainians became angered when it looked as if Cohen could not deliver on providing a substantial meeting. Negotiations continued until the day of Poroshenko's visit.
The Ukrainian president wanted to meet with Trump to clear the air over the 2016 presidential campaign. Several sources told the BBC that Poroshenko authorized the leak of a document from the country's anti-corruption agency to The New York Times that appeared to show Manafort getting millions of dollars from Russian interests in Ukraine. Manafort had to resign from his post after the story was published.
Though the Ukrainian investigation into Manafort did not end following the visit with Trump, the file was passed on to the state prosecutor's office, where it did not move forward.
"There was never a direct order to stop the Manafort inquiry but from the way our investigation has progressed, it's clear that our superiors are trying to create obstacles," the prosecutor in charge of the case, Serhiy Horbatyu, told the BBC.