I am gobsmacked

[mercuryblues]

AT&T paid at least 200,000 and maybe as much as 600,000 to Cohen for insights into understanding the new administration. The payments started 8 months after trump was sworn in. Payments may have occurred before Oct 2017 and continued after Jan 2018, but at this point it is conjecture. One would think if you are a corporation as large as AT&T and you wanted to get a feel for the new administration you would do so during the transition or at least as soon as they were sworn in.

edited in: the CEO of ATT met with trump on Jan 12, 2017 at trump Towers. Apparently he didn't get a feel for his policies then.

A Korean Military firm, Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd, gave Cohen 150,000 for accounting advice.

Novartis Paid him almost 400,000 in payments just below 100,00 to not raise suspicion with the IRS. They have no idea why, the previous CEO did that. Jimenez abruptly announced his departure, to leave in Jan. 2018. Vasant Narasimhan was named new CEO on Sept 4 2017. One month later, Oct 5, 2017 the payments started. Narasimhan wants us to believe that during the transition he was not in the loop of a 400,000 payment made to a real estate company? He missed almost a 1/2 million dollar expense?

Novartis also claims the Cohen promised he could help with healthcare. It turned out he couldn't but they paid him anyway. If only there was a way they could have broken the contract die to Cohen fraud.


these 3 transactions are not including the Russian ones.

Not to mention that in the short time it took me to write this OP. It has been confirmed that ATT paid Cohen 600,000 and Novartis paid him 1.2 million dollars.

Not bad for a real estate consulting firm. Healthcare, accountant and political advisor.

[democratisphere]

1. The only insight to understanding the new administration was that

bribery will possibly get you where you want to go!

[Blue_true]

16. Bingo. They should have just cut to the chase. nt

[dameatball]

2. Who gets this much $$ and still has to mortgage his home....unless....he is passing the $$ on

Mr. Mueller........would you possibly have any idea??

[mercuryblues]

5. I think this is a reason why

the pass through tax cut was added in the wealthcare tax bill.

So what kind tax cut can small business owners expect? Most small businesses are organized as pass-through entities: instead of the business paying tax on its own income, the profit (or loss) is passed through to the owner, who reports it as personal income. Those owners may see their tax cut two ways. (For the record, most of the people who report pass-through income are not in fact small-business owners in the conventional sense but are professionals like lawyers, doctors, and accountants, or simply wealthy investors.)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robbmandelbaum/2017/12/22/what-the-gops-final-pass-through-tax-cut-means-for-business-owners/#417b66c252b2

too much money going in and out of Cohens LLC and he didn't want to be on the hook for taxes.

[dameatball]

6. Very interesting, thank you.

[grantcart]

3. They simply wanted to be updated on the current

Status of New York medallions and their worthiness as a long term hedge against inflation. Simple.

[Demovictory9]

4. amazing

[Johnny2X2X]

7. Cohen was acting as Trump's agent

Zero doubt Trump was aware of everything and took the money for himself as he pushed for policy to help those who bribed him. Cohen probably got a few points out of the $4.4 Million

[onethatcares]

8. bribes, payoffs, under the table cash,

this is why we can't have nice things like single payer, secure retirement, decent schools, and all those little myriad things that might just make a difference in our lives.

$600,000.00. How many school lunches does that buy? $1,200,000.00 makes some nice library books. And the news has nothing going on it except for CNN and MSNBC which most people think are way too boring to watch or listen to.

We are fucked unless the other branches of government stand up and do what the Constitution tells them to do.

[Kurt V.]

9. pay to play.

What does this mean for our future presidents? Disgusting

[Mr.Bill]

10. The irony here is it may be difficult

to find proof of Quid Pro Quo because Trump's crew probably stiffed everybody and didn't do a damn thing for them.

[Honeycombe8]

11. I wonder if this is really a payoff for approving the merger deal with Turner.

Trump spoke about maybe that merger shouldn't go through, blah blah blah, a while back.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is an attempt to cover up payola, or extortion by Trump of AT&T.

This is very suspicious.

[mercuryblues]

13. of course it is a cover up

these CEO's think the American people are so stupid they would believe it. A communications company asking the president's real estate lawyer for political advice? They pay millions a year to lobbyists for that, they didn't need Cohen. As a CEO had already met with trump.

Att has 2 things of importance to them. The time Warner merger and the net nuetrality bill. What is a million or so dollars when they are poised to make hundreds of millions if legislation goes their way.

Where the money went is just as important as where it came from. Was money used to buy a trump property at twice it's value?

[Honeycombe8]

14. That's what I think, too. It's "Time Warner." I mistakenly called it "Turner."

It would be interesting to know if it was Cohen who called ATT, rather than the other way around. Novartis says Cohen contacted THEM, saying he'd get them access to the Prez, if they pay him.

Imagine. I'm blown away at the sheer size and tentacles of the corruption in the administration. It goes in every direction.

[Thunderbeast]

12. Heads should roll at AT&T and Novartis

The boards should fire the CEOs and anyone associated with this blatant bribery scheme.

If the boards don't take action, shareholders and customers must hold these thieves accountable. These folks oversee poison corporate cultures.

[Honeycombe8]

15. It's possible that ATT was extorted.

"You won't get the merger, if we don't see some cash."

The problem isn't with the companies, mainly, IMO. The problem is with Cohen & the administration. I don't think for one minute that this wasn't a planned scheme by Trump and his team. As MJ pointed out this morning, and played some clips...Trump is one of the greediest people around, and he admits it. He hates not making money off things, and hates it when others make money because of him, and he doesn't get a cut. He thought, for instance, that he ought to get paid to participate in the debates...because the networks were making a lot of money. So he should get a cut of that.

[raven mad]

17. "Insight" - new definition

How much is this going to cost?