this is according to the washington post, just breaking this story. qatar said no. this development is the first time that we understand cohen is believed to have pitched his influence directly to a foreign government. novartis and at&t, korea air space, but this is the first foreign government. a washington post reporter broke the story and joins me now on the phone. roslyn, this is pretty incredible. a million dollars. did he want it up front and you know, made it after sort of meeting someone casually it sounds like. tell me what you know? we understand he met this official at a breakfast during the transition and the official who was the head of the, of an investment authority run by the qatari government informed him they were interested in making a big investment in infrastructure in the u.s. cohen got very excited. and in a series of subsequent meetings, started suggesting he
that mr. coenh was markets himself that way? i m not away and i would refer you to the outside counsel. the president promised to drain the swamp so does he feel it s appropriate that michael cohen was selling access to him. ? i m not going to weigh into this. that s a determination that the individual companies have to make. has the president taken any act to benefit at&t, korea air space? not that i m aware of. so rudy giuliani told him he was not involved with cohen s business before or after the election. and the watchdog is now investigating if banking information involving cohen s shell company was actually leaked. the banking records were first received by the attorney for stormy daniels. it could also give some insight into ou the attorney obtained the sensitive information. he says he will not disclose his
that appear tofs led to a criminal investigation of cohen. you re talking about at&t. those are three that we re aware of. why are they paying these fees to michael cohen? this is a list of clients and certainly the expertise they re listing. that would make any lobbying firm here in washington jealous. if you look at novartis has told us, they re a pharmaceutical company. they said they ve hired cohen s company to engage on u.s. health care policy matters. at&t says that they wanted insight and understanding of the new administration korea air
do you know whether mr. cohen ever approach ed the white hous as a representative of any of those xwaen, whether the president was aware ware of the payments or whether he was aware that mr. cohen was marketing himself? i m not aware and i would refer you to outside counsel! has the president taken any action during the administration to benefit novartis, at&t, korea air space. zpl do you belie do you belie was qualified? i m not going to get into somebody else s qualifications. can t get into it. refer you to outside counsel and not aware. but u sanders should be because she is the president s press secretary and speaks on his behalf. so if she doesn t know the answer to these simple and important questions, surely at least she would know whether the president comfort babable with personal attorney. for engaging in a pay to play scheme. is the president okay with that?
in past years now might make him liable and might get him into legal trouble. so that loyalty is really going to be test. it is. i guess the big question now is it should be easy for him to say he has a problem with this. the fact he won t raises questions like did henn about it. and john, do you think it is possible michael cohen was doing this when it comes to novartis, at&t, korea air space, what have else, was he doing this on his own or do you think the president knew abt? difficult knowing donald trump s business mo for the last decades, that he didn t know about it because he does not like people trading on his name. he doesn t like to be particularly when they re trading on his name and he s not getting a piece of the action. so i would be prized if he didn t know. that would raise many serious imp cases. next, at&t. which made michael cohen a lot