AT&T Confirms At Least $200,000 In Payments To Michael Cohen For “Insight Into Trump Administration”

CNN Money reports:

AT&T confirmed Tuesday evening that it paid President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen in 2017 for “insights into understanding the new administration.” The payments were revealed in a document published by Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti Tuesday afternoon.

Avenatti alleged that Essential Consultants, a shell company set up by Cohen before the election to pay Daniels, was paid by several corporations, including AT&T. AT&T was seeking government approval for its acquisition of Time Warner at the time. Time Warner is CNN’s parent company. A document released by Avenatti stated that “Essential received $200,000 in four separate payments of $50,000 in late 2017 and early 2018 from AT&T.”

“Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration,” AT&T said Tuesday evening. “They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017.”