October 17, 2019

Stormy Daniels Lawyer Michael Avenatti just dropped a major bombshell, cracking the giant sinking iceberg that is the Trump Organization.

Tuesday night, Avenatti released a seven page document that claimed that the same bank account Cohen used to pay out hush money to pornstars was involved in millions of dollars of transactions. Those transactions included $200,000 from AT&T and $500,000 linked to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. The NYT and NBC have confirmed the accuracy of the documents.

While everyone in political circles is talking about the revelations of Vekselberg’s involvement. A man sanctioned for funding fake news and for meddling in the US elections. Almost none of the press is focused on the AT&T deal. Yet, the theories are popping up on social media. Was the payoff in part due to AT&T’s stances on Net Neutrality? Was it part of the AT&T/Time Warner Merger?

AT&T does not appear to be involved in the investigations, and quickly released a statement. For it’s part AT&T actually admits to seeking out Cohen, and paid him for ‘insights’ into the Administration. AT&T has denied using him for legal or lobbying work. So the question remains, what did they pay him for?

Now it could all be a case of very, very, very, very, very, very, very crappy bookkeeping, or something much more sinister is going on. Does AT&T deserve any of the blame for doing business with someone like Cohen? If more is revealed about the transaction, will the AT&T and Time Warner merger be affected? Only time will tell, but something tells me AT&T has not weathered this storm yet.

John J. Falco