Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, was secretly paid at least $400,000 to arrange a meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, according to a report Wednesday.
The payment, conducted via intermediaries, was made despite Cohen not being registered as an agent representing foreign interests, sources told the BBC.
Trump welcomed Poroshenko to the White House in June 2017, and shortly after the Ukrainian president’s return to Kiev his country stopped its anti-corruption investigation into Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman.
Cohen was first approached by Ukrainian officials through a New York-based Jewish charity called Chabad of Port Washington. He was asked to broker a meeting because Ukrainian aides could not secure more than a mere photo opportunity with the president.
One source told the BBC that Cohen received $400,000 as part of the deal, while another said he got $600,000.
Cohen has denied the allegations, and the report does not indicate that Trump was aware of the transaction.
Speaking to local media, Poroshenko’s office condemned the BBC story as a “blatant lie, slander, and fake.”
