The BBC reports:
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received a secret payment of at least $400,000 to fix talks between the Ukrainian president and President Trump, according to sources in Kiev close to those involved.
The payment was arranged by intermediaries acting for Ukraine’s leader, Petro Poroshenko, the sources said, though Mr Cohen was not registered as a representative of Ukraine as required by US law. The meeting at the White House was last June.
Shortly after the Ukrainian president returned home, his country’s anti-corruption agency stopped its investigation into Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort. We spoke to Mr Cohen and to the two Ukrainians said to have opened the backchannel for their president – all three denied the story.
Chain of events per BBC:
Cohen receives secret $400K payment from Ukraine to set up meeting b/w Trump and Ukranian president. (Cohen not registered under FARA)
Meeting happens in June
Ukraine drops investigation into Manafort
(Cohen, others deny report)https://t.co/KWCxlXSDnj— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 23, 2018
The Ukrainian government secretly paid MICHAEL COHEN at least $400k to broker a meeting between TRUMP & Ukrainian President POROSHENKO, after which Ukrainian prosecutors froze their investigations into MANAFORT, @BBCNews reports. https://t.co/fdNGONR2g3
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) May 23, 2018
Michael Cohen received $400K selling a meeting with TRUMP to Ukraine and then weeks later Ukraine announced it was no longer investigating Paul Manafort?
Maybe we don’t need an investigation of Trump, just a weekly HBO show where we root on his crimes.
— Jeremy Newberger (@jeremynewberger) May 23, 2018