NEW YORK ¨C A company tied to a Russian oligarch sent $500,000 last year to an entity that President Donald Trump¡¯s lawyer used to pay hush money to porn actress Stephanie Clifford, her attorney Michael Avenatti claimed.
That and other revelations caught the president¡¯s team off guard when Avenatti unveiled them Tuesday on Twitter. It¡¯s the latest twist in litigation brought by Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, centered on a $130,000 payment that lawyer Michael Cohen arranged on the eve of the 2016 presidential election to secure Clifford¡¯s silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
In a document made public online, Avenatti uncovered several corporate relationships. Among $4.43 million in transactions identified by Avenatti as suspicious were deposits from AT&T Inc. and a unit of Novartis AG to the Cohen company. AT&T confirmed shortly afterward that it had paid Cohen a consulting fee late last year to provide ¡°insights¡± into the Trump White House.
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