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.