A giant pharmaceutical company has been linked to the shell company owned by President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen that was used to pay off adult-film star Stormy Daniels, according to documents released by Daniels’s attorney.
Stat News reported Tuesday that documents released by Daniels’s attorney Michael Avenatti reveal that Novartis had entered into a $400,000 agreement with Essential Consultants.
Cohen used Essential Consultants to funnel a $130,000 payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, to buy her silence about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, Stat News reported.
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The drugmaker made four payments of $99,980 to the firm that were previously undisclosed, according to Avenatti.
Documents show that the first Novartis payment was made to Cohen’s company on Oct. 5, 2017, and payments followed monthly through January 2018.
In a statement to NBC news, a Novartis spokesperson said that “any agreements with Essential Consultants were entered before our current CEO taking office in February of this year and have expired.”
Joseph Jimenez was the Novartis chief executive until Vasant Narasimhan took over earlier this year, Stat reported.
The documents released by Avenatti reportedly note that Jimenez attended a private dinner with Trump during the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in January.
The conference took place shortly after The Wall Street Journal released the bombshell report on Jan. 13 that detailed the payment Cohen arranged to Daniels.
Novartis is based in Basel, Switzerland, but reportedly has huge research operations that require Food and Drug Administration approval in the United States.
Stat reported that records show the company spent nearly $8.8 million lobbying the federal government last year.
Trump’s newest lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, said Trump reimbursed Cohen for the payment to Daniels.