Corruption

Report: Ukraine President Paid for Meeting With Trump

Written by SK Ashby

BBC News reports that Trump's longtime lawyer and henchman Michael Cohen was paid by associates of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to arrange a meeting with Trump at the White House on June 20th, 2017.

Sources inside the Ukrainian government tell BBC that Cohen was paid at least $400,000 and possibly as much as $600,000 or more.

This senior official's account is as follows - Poroshenko decided to establish a back channel to Trump. The task was given to a former aide, who asked a loyal Ukrainian MP for help.

He in turn used personal contacts in a Jewish charity in New York state, the Port of Washington Chabad. This eventually led to Michael Cohen, the president's lawyer and trusted fixer. Cohen was paid $400,000. [...]

A second source in Kiev gave the same details, except that the total paid to Cohen was $600,000.

In what is almost certainly not a coincidence, Ukraine dropped their investigation of Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort after the meeting with Trump last summer. The meeting they paid for.

BBC News reports that their sources did not say Trump was aware of Cohen's payday, but there's no reason to think he didn't know. There's no reason to think Trump hasn't received his own cut.