WSJ: Trump Donor Offered Cohen $10 Million To Secure $5 Billion DOE Loan

NEW YORK, NY - JULY 27: Michael Cohen, former personal attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump, exits the Loews Regency hotel and walks toward a taxi cab, July 27, 2018 in New York City. According to recent news re... NEW YORK, NY - JULY 27: Michael Cohen, former personal attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump, exits the Loews Regency hotel and walks toward a taxi cab, July 27, 2018 in New York City. According to recent news reports, Cohen is prepared to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that then-candidate Trump knew about and approved the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian lawyer who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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A Trump donor earlier this year offered President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer $10 million if he successfully secured funding for a nuclear project, including a $5 billion loan from the Department of Energy, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

A lawyer for Franklin Haney, who gave Trump’s inaugural committee $1 million through a corporation, argued to the Journal that “Neither Mr. Haney nor Nuclear Development LLC ever entered into a contract with Michael Cohen or his affiliate for lobbying services related to the Bellefonte [Nuclear Power Plant] project.”

But the Journal’s revelation, which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter, adds to the pile of legal troubles faced by Cohen, this time whether another of his post-election consulting schemes led to unregistered lobbying. Haney also agreed to pay Cohen an undetermined sum as a monthly retainer, the Journal reported.

Cohen, an unnamed person familiar told the Journal, made “several” calls to Energy Department officials to ask about the loan process, “including what could be done to speed it up,” in the paper’s words.

The Journal and Mother Jones previously reported on a meeting Haney and Cohen had in South Florida just days before Cohen’s home, office and hotel room were raided by investigators in April. 

The Journal confirmed that the vice chair of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani, met with Cohen and Haney near Miami Beach on April 5. Cohen spent a night on the Qatari’s yacht, the Journal noted.

It wasn’t known at the time of those initial reports what kind of offer or fees Haney and Cohen had agreed to. The Journal said Thursday it didn’t know how much Cohen had actually been paid.

Haney’s Department of Energy loan application is still pending, the Journal said.

Read the Journal’s full report here.

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Notable Replies

  1. Funny how all these nuke plants need public sector funding via dodgy means. Also, wasn’t this Broidy’s deal in the middleeast?

  2. Ha ha . … ’ loan ’ … too funny …

    You mean - give away - —

    But never fear ! –
    Sec. of Energy Smart Glasses is on it ! —

  3. trumpovich has always surrounded himself with whores. And Mafioso.

  4. And there was no plan for Trump to wet his beak in that $10 million.

    HA HA HA I slay me. Now you tell one!

  5. With DOE secretary Perry’s history of referring to Social Security as a Ponzi scheme, let us hope for his sake that he’s not part of this radioactive money-changing scheme.

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