really did have to hire cohen if they wanted to get contracts, get favorable treatment, have access, that will be what this investigation will be looking at. it s not unforseen, not unpredictable that will happen. that is the bread and butter of prosecutors doing corruption cases. there s another side of this legal coin. one side is you need to hire me in order to get benefits. the other side, which is the old mafia version of it, you need to hire me to prevent this president from doing serious damage to you. i will get this president not to do damage to you. i don t know this for a fact but based on the way i know michael cohen and the way he s conducted himself, there s little down in my mind probably both messages were delivered. let me say this, i seriously doubt at the end of this, there s going to be any doubt as to whether mr. trump knew what was going on here.
that will likely have been the focus for mueller and his team trying to determine whether cohen was freelancing or whether he was actually selling access to the president. and there s an interesting little bit of circumstance swirling around this. if you set yourself up in a pay to play situation, you have to play me if you want to play with this administration, there has to be a threat that you can really carry out. so here we have a tweet that the president was tweeting out about american companies and there were financial repercussions for the companies when those tweets happened. it will be interesting to see how this all compares as cohen goes out and bids with people, tries to get them to hire him, was there twitter activity in any of these industries, did any of these companies believe from other circumstances that they really did have to hire cohen if they wanted to get contracts,
an american company linked to a russian oligarch is scrubbing its website with any links to the russian investment company that he controls. as we reported mueller s team questioned the oligarch viktor vekselberg. the company nova claimed they had no role in the decision to hire cohen. with me davidian gergen, and and ann milwgrim. david i want to start with you. and there is a lot of russian this and that. this is a american company linked to a russian oligarch. pretty directly linked. and this company paid michael cohen $500,000. right. presidential hangers on, it s nothing new. but getting $500,000 from a company linked to a russian oligarch when there is a russia investigation going on, is that
do ndo not misjudgenity quiet tranquility. with the power of 335 turbo-charged horses the lincoln mkx, more horsepower than the lexus rx350 and a quiet interior from which to admire them. the lincoln spring sales event is here. for a limited time get 0% apr on the lincoln mkx. plus get $1000 bonus cash. an american company linked to a russian oligarch is scrubbing its website with any links to the russian investment company that he controls. as we reported mueller s team questioned the oligarch viktor vekselberg. ability about payments made to cohen. the company nova claimed they had no role in the decision to hire cohen.
they wanted to know b about political donations made by his cousin who runs this u.s. affiliated company. end trader had donated roughly $300,000 to the trump inauguration, victory fund and rnc. we reached out to them for comment before the story and didn t hear back, but just got a comment in. i d like to read it if i can. so from an attorney, we were told columbus nova is a management company controlled by americans. after the inauguration, the firm hireded cohen as a business consultant regarding potential source of capital and investments in real estate and other ventures. reports that he used columbus nova as a conduit to cohen are false. the claim that she was involved or provided any funding for the engage of of hcohen is untrue. neither victor nor the owners were involved in the decision to hire cohen. that may be the case, but we