Senate Dems: Cohen Was “Selling Access” To Trump

Roll Call reports:

Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, is the target of a new report from Democratic senators who on Friday accused him of “selling access” to the White House through a shell company he formed during the 2016 election campaign.

The senators’ report is based on emails they obtained from Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, which signed a $1.2 million contract with Cohen’s shell company, Essential Consultants LLC, for “consulting and advisory services.” Novartis voluntarily produced the emails to the senators.

The senators who released the report — Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal and Patty Murray — criticized Cohen, who has become an integral part of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe into ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign, for what Wyden dubbed his “side hustle as influencer-in-chief.”

The more we learn about the arrangement between Michael Cohen & Novartis, the more alarming it appears. The public was rightly concerned to learn President Trump’s close associates are selling access to the Administration and getting million dollar contracts from drug companies. https://t.co/77WRHOgl5e

— Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) July 13, 2018

New report from Senate investigators reveals more insight into “access selling” conducted by #Trump attorney Michael Cohen https://t.co/4Fw3Bhf523 pic.twitter.com/sxltf39JH1

— OpenSecrets.org (@OpenSecretsDC) July 13, 2018