White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday that attorney Michael Cohen failed to influence his longtime client President Trump on policy for major companies, and that Cohen’s unsuccessful influence peddling “is actually the definition of draining the swamp.”
“I think this further proves that the president is not going to be influenced by special interests. This is actually the definition of draining the swamp,” Sanders said at the daily White House press briefing.
Cohen reportedly was paid $600,000 by AT&T and $1.2 million by multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis after Trump’s surprise 2016 election victory. The leaders of the two companies expressed regret this week about the payments.
AT&T was seeking help in its proposed merger with Time Warner, which Trump publicly opposed. Novartis apparently was motivated by uncertainty about Trump’s healthcare policies, including his denunciation of drug company prescription pricing.
“I think it’s pretty clear that the Department of Justice opposed the merger, and so certainly the president has not been influenced by any — or his administration influenced by any outside special interest,” Sanders said at the press briefing.
She added: “I think the bigger point is the president isn’t going to be influenced by outside special interests.”
Earlier in the day, Trump spoke about reducing prescription costs, though the pharmaceutical industry emerged largely unscathed from the much-anticipated announcement.
