Rudy Giuliani, a member of President Trump’s legal team, said Trump was “unaware” of payments his personal lawyer received for consulting work, according to a report Wednesday.
Giuliani also denied that Trump was muddled in the payments “in any respect.”
“From our point of view we have no reason to be concerned about it or to pursue it any further,” Giuliani said, according to Bloomberg.
The comments come after it was revealed Essential Consultants, which was established by Cohen to pay porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 just before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump more than a decade ago, received payments from an American company with ties to a Russian billionaire, global pharmaceutical company Novartis, and AT&T.
Trump met with Novartis’ CEO not long after the payments were made, and AT&T’s payment coincided with when the company was trying to obtain government approval for a merger with Time-Warner. The Trump administration blocked the deal in November.
Additionally, special counsel Robert Mueller interviewed the Russian billionaire, Viktor Vekselberg, about the transactions, which were made right after the 2016 election, made to Cohen’s account, according to a CNN report.
Vekselberg was one of 17 Russian officials who was hit with sanctions from the U.S. Treasury Department in April. Those sanctions froze U.S. assets and barred dealings with Americans or U.S. entities.
Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
