There’s all sorts of new Michael Cohen news today, but the juiciest was uncovered by Ronan Farrow, who has seriously been the most prolific journalist in recent memory.
He found out that the guy who leaked Cohen’s financial docs did it because he thinks there might be a cover up:
…there has been much speculation about who leaked the confidential documents, and the Treasury Department’s inspector general has launched a probe to find the source. That source, a law-enforcement official, is speaking publicly for the first time, to The New Yorker, to explain the motivation: the official had grown alarmed after being unable to find two important reports on Cohen’s financial activity in a government database. The official, worried that the information was being withheld from law enforcement, released the remaining documents.
AND…
The report also refers to two previous suspicious-activity reports, or sars, that the bank had filed, which documented even larger flows of questionable money into Cohen’s account. Those two reports detail more than three million dollars in additional transactions—triple the amount in the report released last week. Which individuals or corporations were involved remains a mystery. But, according to the official who leaked the report, these sars were absent from the database maintained by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or fincen. The official, who has spent a career in law enforcement, told me, “I have never seen something pulled off the system. . . . That system is a safeguard for the bank. It’s a stockpile of information. When something’s not there that should be, I immediately became concerned.” The official added, “That’s why I came forward.”
SO.. that’s very bad. And the leak is also illegal. But what the leaker exposed is also very very suspicious.
Meanwhile, there’s a report that Cohen received money from a South Korean company:
The FBI is reportedly investigating a payment from a South Korean aerospace company to President Trump’s longtime attorney, Michael Cohen.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the man who served as a translator between Cohen and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) was in touch with federal investigators about the arrangement “a few weeks ago.”
The South Korean company said it paid Cohen $150,000 last November for insight on U.S. accounting law.
The translator, Mark Ko, told the Post that his role in the transaction between the two parties was “small,” but confirmed that the South Korean firm was interested in discussing accounting matters with Cohen.
AND that he asked the Qataris for money:
Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, is facing claims he asked a Middle Eastern official for millions of dollars to give to ‘Trump family members’ in a meeting at Trump Tower weeks after the president’s election victory, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Cohen is alleged to have asked Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, a former diplomat in charge of a $100bn Qatari investment fund, to send ‘millions’ through him to Trump family members. A source told DailyMail.com that the Qatari said he refused.
Al-Rumaihi on Tuesday issued a statement agreeing that he was at Trump Tower and a source with knowledge of the daysaid that Cohen had ‘popped in’ briefly to a meeting. Photographs show that he was part of a group greeted by Cohen, who went up in an elevator with them.
DailyMail.com can disclose that the group also included Qatar’s foreign minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
And what does that mean? Well consider this:
https://twitter.com/NormEisen/status/996543594361184256Pretty remarkable.. but where is this all leading? Probably very bad news for Michael Cohen, but it’s unclear how connected it actually is to Trump.
I bet ya Robert Mueller knows that answer…