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Welcome, readers, to the Good Men Project Daily Brief!
I’m a firm believer that Basketball is a great analogy for everything. In Basketball, the back cut is a play where you set up with a shoulder or head fake, or step fake away, and then cut hard behind the defender to the basket. You use the back-cut when the defender is over-playing the offense and denying the pass, the perfect counter for tight defensive pressure.
Michael Avenatti is the attorney for Stephanie Clifford’s (who performs under the name Stormy Daniels) lawsuits against the President, in which alleges Ms. Clifford was paid $130,000 dollars to sign a nondisclosure agreement barring her from telling her story regarding a sexual encounter with Citizen Donald Trump. To this writer, the encounter isn’t terribly interesting, but what is interesting are the conflicting accounts by all parties involved about how, why, when, and who paid the $130,000 dollars to Ms. Clifford.
Last night, Mr. Avenatti released what he has called an “Executive Summary” on insights into Michael Cohen’s shell company Essential Consultants LLC that appear to show Mr. Cohen selling access to the President to companies, lobbies, and at least one Russian oligarch.
What does this have to do with defamation or the validity of an NDA? Absolutely nothing, but it’s a hell of a back cut into possible collusion by the Trump Campaign with Russia, campaign finance fraud, bribery, all sorts of things.
My name is Mckay Williams and this is your Daily Brief:
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NBC News confirms Avanetti document.
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This is NBC News’ confirmation of the document through their own vetting.
“According to Avenatti, at least $4.4 million flowed through Essential Consultants, the company Cohen created in October 2016 and then used to pay porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money.
Among the transactions that Avenatti said he uncovered:
- Columbus Nova, a U.S.-based firm with ties to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, made about $500,000 in payments between January and August 2017. In a statement, Columbus said it hired Cohen as a consultant “regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures.”
Novartis made four payments of just under $100,000 each in late 2017 and early 2018. In a statement, Novartis said it had an agreement with Essential Consultants, “focused on U.S. healthcare policy matters.”
AT&T made four payments of $50,000 each to Essential in late 2017 and early 2018. In a statement, AT&T said it engaged the firm in early 2017 to “provide insights into understanding the new administration.”
Korea Aerospace Industries made a $150,000 payment to Essential in November 2017. KAI said in a statement to Reuters that it had a contract with Essential for “legal consulting concerning accounting standards on production costs.”
Avenatti did not disclose how he got the information or any other evidence that Cohen might be selling access to Trump.”
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Are the Documents Fake? Avanetti Invites the President’s Team to Prove It.
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Here’s the back cut. The President’s defenders have locked down anything related to Citizen Trump’s finances. The various probes by the House, Senate, and Special Counsel have thus far been unable to get any information publicly released by the White House, but if they want to dispute Avanetti’s claims they’ll have to release documents proving them false.
Take a look at this infographic by The Washington Post which visually lays out the claims:
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But wait… there’s more?
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This writer has both an affinity and healthy distrust of lawyers. It’s an important issue heretofore unexplored regarding exactly how Mr. Avanetti came to be in possession of these documents. This writer also is frustrated with Avanetti’s showboating in a Trumpain fashion by constantly teasing more information “later”.
However, it may also be a brilliant ploy using the President’s own propensity to deliver information like a second rate reality TV show and sneak in behind his defenses. I haven’t decided yet, but I can almost guarantee we’ll be talking about this more.
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Click for more from Mckay Williams
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