Members-Only Article
As I said last night, I think yesterday’s revelations about Michael Cohen and payoffs from a Russian oligarch and from at least two Fortune 500 companies are among the biggest we’ve seen since the beginning of the Russia investigation. With the morning and more follow up reporting, I wanted to walk through precisely what we learned last night.
Let’s begin with some critical background. Michael Cohen has operated his various business operations through numerous shell companies for years. Last night I realized that I could name from memory at least a dozen that I had come across in earlier reporting. Cohen created Essential Consultants LLC in Delaware less than two weeks before he finalized his hush money deal with Stormy Daniels. It appears that EC LLC was created specifically for that purpose.