Russians paid Trump's Lawyer?? Turns Out Its Just More Fake News.

The death throws of the Russian narrative continue to flail wildly as the lawyer who owes over 5 million in back taxes, recently released a 7 page memo alleging a Russian "with close ties to Putin" (don't they all) paid Trumps lawyer half a million through a company called Columbus Nova.

Some in the media and some here on ATS ran with it all giddy and gleeful. Look! We finally found the Russian connection!

Forget the fact that Avenatti did not release any documentation to support the claim, he didn’t reveal the source of his information, Reuters could not immediately verify the claim, it was not clear how Avenatti would even have knowledge of any payment from Vekselberg to Cohen.

Turns out it's just not true.

Columbus Nova's lawyer, Richard Owens, said in a statement the company is "solely owned and controlled by Americans." He said that after Trump's inauguration in January 2017, the company hired Cohen as a business consultant "regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures," but that it had nothing to do with Vekselberg. "Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else, other than Columbus Nova's owners, were involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement," he said.

www.wcjb.com...

Mueller already passed the investigation of Cohen off. So we're to believe this asshat of a lawyer found something that the supposed impeccable former FBI head and his team of anti Trumpers couldn't find.

Even some anti Trumpers in the media think there is nothing illegal or shady going on, actually a completely common thing to happen in Washington DC.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, AT&T has confirmed, uh, the payments. Novartis has confirmed, uh, the payments. Columbus Nova has confirmed the payments, although they said it had nothing to do with Russia. What is illegal, uhhh, about that? Michael Cohen, attorney for the president, close to the president, sets up a firm in Washington, D.C., gives strategic consulting advice. What’s wrong with that?

AVENATTI: Each company has given a different reason for retaining Michael Cohen — real estate, business consulting, health care consulting, the list goes on and on. Michael Cohen —

STEPHANOPOULOS: Okay. But nothing wrong with any of that.

AVENATTI: We don’t know where this ends, but it doesn’t smell right.

So there you have it folks, it just doesn't smell right to the guy who owes 5 million dollars to the IRS. Yea, he's not just looking to grab his piece of the Russian hysteria for a big payday here.

Maybe the damage has been done though, for brief moment the headlines were all Russia paid Trump! It's sunk into the weak minds of a few and keeps the belief alive a little longer. They'll be along here shortly.

Meh.

a reply to: FauxMulder

It's not about legalities any more.

It's about making up enough stuff to force out a legally sitting president.

This is a coup d'état.

a reply to: FauxMulder

So there you have it folks, it just doesn't smell right to the guy who owes 5 million dollars to the IRS.

That's a huge red flag in and of itself... normal people who owe the IRS try to keep their heads down and not draw attention to themselves... And that's just the beginning of this guy's legal woes:

Before Stormy Daniels, her attorney faced allegations of dubious business dealings at Tully’s Coffee

Another huge red flag is Stormy's assertion that she is not paying Avenatti; so who is? Who is Avenatti really working for??? And what? Is it just money? Or is someone promising that all his crimes will magically disappear as long as he plays his role???

The most dangerous and vulnerable people in the world are those who have nothing and/or everything to lose. Avenatti seems to fall in one or both of those categories.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Seems to be what they've been doing, steadily, on CNN. Start a rumour, discuss everyone's opinions on it, for days, saying what if (a lot)...... until people think it's real news.

Watching the psychology going on, on that channel, is fascinating.
Also disturbing....

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: FauxMulder

It's not about legalities any more.

It's about making up enough stuff to force out a legally sitting president.

This is a coup d'état.

Correction, if I may. It’s an “attempted” coup d’etat, destined to end badly for the conspirators. Remember, obstruction of justice, via lying to investigators, goes both ways. If Avenatti does owe $5m in back taxes, he should be seeing a courtroom pretty soon. It is amazing, though, like OP pointed out, that the loony left will take the word of a shyster lawyer and run with it, facts be damned.

a reply to: FauxMulder

No, it turns out that Columbus Nova has tried to distance itself from Vekselberg/Renova Group. A similar point was brought up in the thread I authored. They two entities have scrubbed their websites but the # is archived. This was from the Renova Group website (full-size):



This is something that I posted about this two days ago and guess what? Columbus Nova has since removed that page from their site:

Here's the dead link.

Luckily, the Internet remembers. Here's the archived link at Archive.Is.

The removed content was the bio for Vekselberg's cousin, Andrew Intrater, who is the CEO of Columbus Nova. Here's what the deleted bio said:

Andrew Intrater

Mr. Intrater has, since January 2000, been the Chief Executive Officer of Columbus Nova, the US investment vehicle for the Renova Group which is a multi-national, Zurich-based industrial holding. He is a former Director and current Member of the Executive Board of Renova Group, a global leader in energy, base metals and mining industries. In 1985 he founded ATI, the predecessor of Oryx Technology Corp. Mr. Intrater served Oryx as President and Chief Operating Officer until 1999 as it grew into a leading manufacturer of semiconductor test equipment. While at Oryx he led its 1994 IPO and oversaw two strategic acquisitions, including the purchase of Zenith's power converter division. He also introduced a transportable, secondary ion mass spectrometer to QA groups in the hard disk and magnetic read/write head markets.

Mr. Intrater holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University and performed graduate studies in Materials Science at Columbia University.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Or maybe they want to distance themselves from Renova because of the sanctions Trump put on them. Or do people usually sanction their buddies who pay off porn stars for them?

Come on dude. ATT&T, Noavartis, and others have also hired Cohen. They must be in cahoots with the Russians and the President as well. The whole premise is absurd to begin with my man.

I love how all of you are so capable of compartmentalizing all this to avoid acknowledging that Michael Cohen was at the very least, telling these companies that he could provide access to Trump and taking millions of dollars for it.

As you can see from what I just posted, it's pretty obvious that they're doing a half ass job of trying to put distance between Columbus Nova and Vekselberg. Which is part of an attempt to make this influence peddling simply about Russia so that you can argue that there's no connection from Columbus Nova to Vekselberg, therefore no ties to Russia, therefore "nothing to see here!"

And not only are you wrong, it's got nothing to do with the $100k a month Novartis was paying him or that fact that he solicited them with promises of providing access to Dear Leader in exchange for that money.

Try as you might, you can't dance around that.

And this bit about attacking Avenatti is just weak. None of this hinges of Avenatti's credibility at this point folks, all of the companies, including Columbus Nova, have confirmed the payments to Cohen.

Which brings me to another point about CN — they're the only ones so full of # that they're trying to pass of some nonsense about hiring Cohen after the election to consult on real estate investments.

Oh and just in case it wasn't clear before, while CN is an entity owned by Vekselberg's cousin, Vekselberg's Renova Group is in fact the largest "client" of Columbus Nova which up until this #storm was openly calling itself "the US investment vehicle for Renova Group" and which was listed and detailed on the Renova Group's website as part of their corporate structure, as I posted earlier.

Nice to see the Cult and bots are now trying their smear campaign on a straight white dude (Avenetti) for once, usually it's an old lady (Warren, Clinton, Pelosi) or minorities of all ages (Waters, Harris, Ryan). Diversity is great!

a reply to: theantediluvian

The point about Avenatti is that he's a looser trying to stay relevant so he found a weak Russian connection to say Russia paid his client. When in fact this is after the election to a firm owned by a guy who as you said has access to the president (probably pretty limited now). DERP I wonder why companies are paying for access.

Your boy Mueller already looked at it and said Yea, nothing here, pass it on to NY AG.

I'm sure I could connect you or just about anyone else to a Russian with close ties to President Putin.

Good morning Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump - helped along by Aras and Emin. What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly? I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first. Best Rob Goldstone

a reply to: FauxMulder


That alone proves the collusion narrative.. it is literally spelled out word for word in trumps son’s emails..




B) I’m not seeing where anything here was debunked..

a reply to: DBCowboy

BWAHAHAHA..


Yea.. that is why like 15 people have been indicted or already plead guilty..


They all know he made a deal with the Russians.. the above email from Jr. literally spells it out play by play..

a reply to: FauxMulder

Come on dude. ATT&T, Noavartis, and others have also hired Cohen. They must be in cahoots with the Russians and the President as well. The whole premise is absurd to begin with my man.

Your whole argument is a strawman. For example, look at the thread I posted about Cohen and Novartis:

Cohen Solicited Foreign Pharma Giant Promising Access, Received $100k Per Month

Nowhere in the OP is there anything about Russia. Or how about you look at the original thread I posted following Avenatti's release in Breaking Political News:

Stormy Daniels' lawyer: Cohen was paid $500K by Putin-tied company after election

(that's the conservative The Hill's title btw)

There's not one mention of anything having to do with the election or coordination between Team Trump and the Russians.

You want to put this in a box labeled "Russia! Russia! Russia!" and dismiss it as a failed attempt at proving something about "collusion" but the fact is, nobody is making the argument that this proves coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin — at least nobody is making it whose opinions are probably worth listening to.

a reply to: crtrvt


i'm surprised it took so long for the hottie avenatti smear campaign. it's funny.

a reply to: theantediluvian

I love how all of you are so capable of compartmentalizing all this to avoid acknowledging that Michael Cohen was at the very least, telling these companies that he could provide access to Trump and taking millions of dollars for it.

"All of you"... really???

I'm quite capable of acknowledging such... and otherwise seeing Cohen for the dirty dog that he is... as well as Avenatti...

Fact is I don't see any good guys in this whole wretched debacle.

a reply to: FauxMulder



If you read the last statement Avenatii makes, he says "we don't know where this ends, it doesn't smell right" So what your saying is fake news is not fake news. Also The POTUS lied to the American people over and over, I have a problem with that.

He did not just lie about Stormy, he lies about far more than just her. This Stormy thing, is just ripple, compared to all of his other lies. Such as not knowing Putin before he was POTUS. He has been dealing with Russia for DECADES. When Muller tells all, you will see.

a reply to: crtrvt

Do you ever just look down to see what has fallen out of your mouth?

Like, "Hey look! A penny!"


While I don't subscribe to the differences between republican and democrat, there is a divide as illustrated by your posts.

And it is within this divide that justification for a coup against a sitting president is growing.

originally posted by: JoshuaCox
a reply to: DBCowboy

BWAHAHAHA..


Yea.. that is why like 15 people have been indicted or already plead guilty..


They all know he made a deal with the Russians.. the above email from Jr. literally spells it out play by play..

Proof.

Show me proof.

Oh wait.

You can't?


Like I said, a coup.

Like the kids say, "Haters gonna hate!"

a reply to: FauxMulder

This fake news on Trump stuff is like an epidemic plague! It just keeps getting passed on and causes damage. ATS is soooo full of negative Trump threads. ATS has been derailed by those that just cannot align themselves to the fact Trump won the election and is semi-effective as a President. Bring back the Supernatural topics to ATS...the political stuff is getting rather dreary and old.

originally posted by: JoshuaCox

Good morning Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump - helped along by Aras and Emin. What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly? I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first. Best Rob Goldstone

a reply to: FauxMulder


That alone proves the collusion narrative.. it is literally spelled out word for word in trumps son’s emails..




B) I’m not seeing where anything here was debunked..

Yawn. You should stop posting that, it proves nothing and has no merits.

Although, I do laugh everytime you do.