Trump fixer Michael Cohen, acting as a consultant for a major Trump inauguration donor, met with the donor and a representative of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund in early April seeking an investment for the donor’s nuclear plant project, two reports Monday indicated.
Mother Jones and the Wall Street Journal, each citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reported on the meeting Monday afternoon.
The Trump donor, Franklin Haney, gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee, according to the reports, and at least $125,000 to the Republican National Committee this year, according to Mother Jones. He’s seeking to complete an unfinished nuclear plant in Alabama. Both reports said the results of the meeting were unknown.
Both reports also noted that Haney is seeking the extension of a federal nuclear power tax credit, among other things.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, with whom Cohen and Haney met on April 5, is the Qatari minister of economy and commerce as well as the deputy chairman of the Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund.
Haney, the Journal reported, recently hired Cohen as a consultant, though Cohen’s fee is unclear. The trio met at a Four Seasons near Miami Beach, the Journal reported, just days before Cohen’s home, office and hotel room were raided as part of a months-long criminal probe.
Foreign Policy, Mother Jones noted, had reported earlier this month on the meeting between Cohen and Al Thani but could not detail their discussions. (Haney is unmentioned in that report.)
A spokesperson for the Qatari government confirmed to the Journal that Cohen had requested the meeting, and that it had been granted, but did not elaborate on its purpose.
Read Mother Jones’ report here and the Wall Street Journal’s report here.
Qatar - trying to buy its way back into the good graces of Trumpworld.
Brian Sewer wrote a good piece explaining There Is Only One Trump Scandal
Except I would add – and the reason I put this comment on an article about Cohen’s corruption – is that there are two parts to this and shielding that corruption only became a critical issue after Trump won the election.
The corruption, the grift, started much earlier as the Trump family and associates like Cohen worked to wring as much profit out of the run for POTUS as they could get. It was a winning move all the way: build Trump’s brand and profit from ‘donations’ as national and international plutocrats and oligarchs hedged against all outcomes and the sorry voters who bought the ‘populist’ bullshit proffered their meager savings to the campaign.
But, against (almost) all odds, Trump won and not only had to govern but had to cover dirt, lots and lots of it. No need to guess which had top priority – governing was for chumps anyway – except it began to occur to even the dumbest of these thieves that the way to do one was to do the other: ‘govern’ in full court autocratic press, suppress the opposition entirely. The fact that the opposition was primarily composed of democratic institutions and the norms of civil society was a minor detail.
Mr. Haney: “Now, what your inauguration needs, Mr. Cohen, is this beautiful, giant eggslicer.”
Oliver Wendell Cohen: "That’s a harp!"
Mr. Haney: “Correct! An Eggslicer harp – made by the Horace Eggslicer, last of the great harpmakers.”
Oliver Wendell Cohen: “Mis-ter Ha-ney…!”
Le marais, c’est moi!
How’s the view from under the bus, Michael?