Michael Cohen, the long-time bosom lawyer of President Donald Trump, just days before being raided by the FBI at month, met in Florida with the economy and commerce minister of Qatar, according to a new describe Friday.
The news about Cohen’s meeting with the Qatari dean, who is a member of that nation’s royal family, comes two days after The Washington Newel revealed that Cohen in late 2016 had asked for a payment of at crumb $1 million from Qatar’s government.
According to The Post, Cohen was oblation access to and advice about Trump’s incoming administration — but he was turned down by Qatar, a flush Arab Gulf state.
On Thursday, The New York Times reported that the kinsmen of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a senior White House advisor, is on the brim about to of having a debt-burdened New York City office building bailed out by a real-estate company partly owned by Qatar’s government.
On Friday, the magazine Foreign Action reported that two sources had said Cohen met with Qatari chaplain Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani last month in Miami, Fla.
The creators would not disclose to Foreign Policy what was said at the meeting, which came at the start of a four-day roadshow pointed to spotlight Qatar’s economic and cultural partnerships with several U.S. big apples.
The Miami section of the roadshow occurred April 4. Foreign Principles reported that one person who was at the forum in Miami said that Cohen had “sat in one roundtable examination” at the event.
A spokesman for the Qatari embassy said that Cohen had asked for the congregation with Al Thani, but would not confirm the meeting happened.
“The State of Qatar has under no circumstances been a client of Mr. Cohen,” the spokesman told Foreign Policy.
CNBC has requested opine from Qatar’s embassy, as well as from Stephen Ryan, a counsel for Cohen.
Qatar’s leader, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, met with Trump in the Egg-shaped Office at the tail end of the roadshow, on April 10.
Just a day earlier, on April 9, FBI means, armed with search warrants, raided the New York City untroubled b in and office of Cohen, as well as a hotel room where he and his family had been staying while their apartment was being renovated.
The representatives, acting on behalf of federal prosecutors in Manhattan, seized documents and electronic send ins, as well as cells phones and other electronic devices. Prosecutors are studying Cohen for possible crimes related to his business dealings.
Among the queues seized were ones relating to an October 2016 payment of $130,000 that Cohen play-acted, right before the presidential election, to the porn actress Stormy Daniels. Daniels, whose licit name is Stephanie Clifford, has said the money was in exchange for her agreeing not to publicly deliberate over an affair she claims to have had with Trump in 2006.
The White House has denied such an undertaking. But Trump and his new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in recent weeks have reinforced that the president reimbursed Cohen for the payment to Daniels, despite Trump’s before-mentioned claim that he had no knowledge of the hush-money payoff.
On May 8, Michael Avenatti, a solicitor for Daniels, revealed that records showed that four other things — drug giant Novartis, AT&T, defense contractor Korean Aerospace Industries and non-gregarious equity firm Columbus Nova — had paid Cohen hundreds of thousands of dollars after Trump turned president.
Columbus Nova is closely tied to Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch who is himself closely linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Columbus Nova has averred Vekselberg played no role in its decision to hire Cohen as a “business counsellor,” for a reported amount of $500,000.