President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen was rejected by Ford Motor Co. after he offered to provide consulting services to the auto company, according to a report Friday.
Cohen reached out to Ford’s Washington, D.C. office in January 2017 and highlighted his relationship with Trump in a short phone call with Ford’s head of government affairs, Ziad Ojakli, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The invitation was denied, and there were no additional conversations about the issue, sources familiar with the situation said.
The matter grabbed the interest of special counsel Robert Mueller, who requested emails and records of the interaction from Ford. It remains uncertain when Mueller requested documents related to Cohen’s offer.
The report comes after it was revealed Cohen received substantial payments from several sources for his consulting work through Essential Consultants, a company Cohen established and used to pay porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 just before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence over an alleged affair with Trump.
For example, AT&T paid Essential Consultants a total of $600,000 and outlined that Cohen would consult them on a variety of topics including the potential merger with Time-Warner, according to a Washington Post report.
On Friday, the telecommunications giant claimed hiring Cohen was a “big mistake,” according to a memo to company employees that the Washington Examiner reviewed.
“Our company has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons these last few days, and our reputation has been damaged,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson wrote. “Our Washington D.C., team’s vetting process clearly failed, and I take responsibility for that.”
AT&T revealed Wednesday that Mueller’s team reached out to them and that they “cooperated fully” with the probe.
