AT&T paid Trump lawyer Michael Cohen $200K for ‘insights’ on the administration, alongside payments from Novartis and Korean aerospace firm

AT&T paid Trump lawyer Michael Cohen $200K for ‘insights’ on the administration, alongside payments from Novartis and Korean aerospace firm The passage links a major telecom company, a pharmaceutical giant, and a foreign aerospace firm to payments to Michael Cohen’s shell company for non‑legal “insights” on the Trump administration. It provides specific amounts, dates, and entities, suggesting a possible influence‑peddling scheme that could be investigated for violations of lobbying disclosure rules and antitrust concerns around the AT&T‑Time Warner merger. The lead is actionable but not yet corroborated, and the novelty is moderate as the payments have been reported in the media but not fully explored in investigations. Key insights: AT&T made four $50,000 payments to Cohen’s Essential Consultants in late 2017‑early 2018 ($200K total).; Novartis paid nearly $400,000 in four installments to the same firm in the same period.; Korea Aerospace Industries paid $150,000 to Essential Consultants in November 2017.