The Wall Street Journal just published a stunning scoop. In 2017 Michael Cohen negotiated a $1.6 million hush deal for a major GOP fundraiser named Elliott Broidy, deputy finance chairman of the RNC. If that name rings a bell, it should. Broidy is at the center of the part of the Russia probe involving the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and international fixer and convicted pedophile George Nader.
Nader, in turn, is the guy who set up those meetings in the Seychelles which brought together Erik Prince and that Russian banker. Both Nader and Broidy have been frequent visitors to the White House during Trump’s presidency and involved in ways that are still not totally clear in the mix of money negotiations, geopolitics and Russia back channels with a series of Gulf emirates.
Also notable, the woman in question became pregnant and ended her pregnancy in an abortion, though in a statement to the Journal Broidy says that decision was solely hers.
Here’s a document dump relating to the raids earlier this week: the government’s opposition to Cohen’s TRO motion (Cohen wants to prevent the FBI from reviewing his stuff). The memorandum is notable in that Cohen is a suspect of criminal activities relating to his “own business dealings” and not as an attorney.
Here’s what is remarkable about this TRO motion as it is being argued — it means that today, there is a lawyer who works for the DOJ under the executive branch headed by Trump, and there is a lawyer representing Trump’s personal lawyer, and they are arguing exact opposite positions.
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Open in new tab UPDATE:
Is Cohen still Trump’s personal attorney? @PressSec says: “I’m not sure.”
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) April 13, 2018