Michael Cohen Received $1 Million After Meeting With Russian Oligarch

PETERSBURG, RUSSIA - SEPTEMBER 06: In this handout image provided by Host Photo Agency, President of the Skolkovo Foundation Viktor Vekselberg attends the briefing "The outcomes of the G20 Leaders's meeting with the social partners. The work of the Business 20 and Labour 20 within the Russian Presidency. The White book" at the G20 Summit on September 6, 2013 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Leaders of the G20 nations made progress on tightening up on multinational company tax avoidance, but remain divided over the Syrian conflict as they enter the final day of the Russian summit. (Photo by Anatoly Medved /Host Photo Agency via Getty Images)

Eleven days before the 2016 inauguration, Michael Cohen, personal attorney for Donald Trump, met with Kremlin-backed Russian Oligarch Viktor Vekselberg at Trump Tower in New York to discuss “Russian relations.” It wasn’t long after that Cohen received a $1 million contract with an associate of Vekselberg. The New York Times reports:

“In Mr. Cohen’s office on the 26th floor, he and the oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, discussed a mutual desire to strengthen Russia’s relations with the United States under President Trump, according to Andrew Intrater, an American businessman who attended the meeting and invests money for Mr. Vekselberg. The men also arranged to see one another at the inauguration, the second of their three meetings, Mr. Intrater said.”

It wasn’t long after the meeting that Mr. Intrater’s private equity firm awarded Cohen a $1 million dollar consulting contract that has drawn the attention of authorities. Intrater told the Times:

“Obviously, if I’d known in January 2017 that I was about to hire this high-profile guy who’d wind up in this big mess, I wouldn’t have introduced him to my biggest client, and wouldn’t have hired him at all.”

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