Michael Cohen paid an unknown tech company $50,000 to help President Trump’s campaign before the 2016 election, according to legal documents disclosed as part of his guilty plea.
Federal prosecutors in New York wrote that the money was exchanged for work Cohen “solicited from a technology company during and in connection with the campaign,” CNBC first reported.
But Cohen reported the expense to the Trump Organization in January 2017, which wrote it off as a “payment for tech services,” rather than for the campaign itself.
Spokespeople for the White House, the Trump campaign, the Trump Organization, and Michael Cohen did not respond to CNBC’s inquiries about the tech company nor what they did. Without these details it is difficult to ascertain whether the sum amounts to another campaign finance violation.
[Opinion: Cohen’s plea could land Trump in the witness chair]
The transaction also suggests Cohen had a larger role in the campaign other than simply arranging nondisclosure agreements for women claiming to have had extramarital affairs with the then-candidate.
Cohen pleaded guilty in a New York federal district court on Tuesday to five tax evasion charges for failing to report $4 million in income from 2012 to 2016 and one count of making a false statement to a lending institution between 2015 and 2016 when applying for a home equity line of credit. He additionally pleaded guilty to charges associated with willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution in 2016 and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution in 2016.
Cohen’s contribution charges are believed to be tied to hush money he paid before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who both claim to have had sexual encounters with a married Trump.
Cohen’s charges follow an investigation spearheaded by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York after it received a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
