RUSH: Let\u2019s go to Avenatti, Stormy Daniels\u2019 lawyer — who, by the way, I just found out owes the IRS $5 million. Did you see the story? He owes the IRS $5 million over some such thing. The actual letter from the IRS has been reprinted. I looked at it. I actually tried to scan the bar code to prove its legitimacy and it was a copy of a copy. The bar code didn\u2019t scan. But, anyway, it\u2019s out there. But the lawyer, Michael Avenatti — the lawyer for the porn star, Stormy Daniels — says that Trump\u2019s personal lawyer, Cohen, “received $500,000 from a Russian billionaire in the months after the 2016 election.<\/p>\n
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“In a tweet and a report released on Tuesday, Avenatti said that a company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, a businessman with ties to Putin sent the payment to Cohen. Avenatti did not release any documentation to support the claim. He didn\u2019t reveal the source of his information. Reuters could not immediately verify the claim. It was not clear how Avenatti would have knowledge of any payment from Vekselberg to Cohen.<\/p>\n
“Avenatti said that Vekselberg and his cousin made eight transfers to Cohen between January and August of 2017 through a company called Columbus Nova LLC, for a total of $500,000. Columbus Nova is a U.S. investment arm of the Renova Group, a conglomerate controlled by Vekselberg. Both Vekselberg and Renova were hit last month by U.S. sanctions for suspecting meddling of the U.S. election.” Trump put the sanctions on! (laughing)<\/p>\n
It was Trump that put sanctions on this guy supposedly sending Cohen money. Now, what Avenatti — and the media went right along with this. What Avenatti is trying to say here is that this is the Russian connection. “This is it! We finally found it! We had this $500,000 payment to Trump\u2019s lawyer, and this is for job well done. This is for winning the election, helping the collusion.” This is what Avenatti is trying to say. Now, folks, it doesn\u2019t add up.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m growing short on time here, so I need to do an abbreviated response here. But the Drive-By Media has a sort of a rundown of what has been learned so far, what Avenatti\u2019s alleging, what is known. And it\u2019s creepy, the way that they have assembled it. They say there\u2019s Russian money paid by Columbus Nova. It\u2019s being described as a clearinghouse for a guy who is very, very tight with Putin. But Columbus Nova says, “No! None of this is true.”<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lawyer four Columbus Nova. His name is Richard Owen. He issued a statement. “Columbus Nova is solely owned and controlled by Americans, the company said in a statement. After [Trump] was inaugurated, Columbus Nova hired Cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures.” But it had nothing to do with this Vekselberg guy, who had ties to Putin!<\/p>\n
Another big set of payments to Cohen, Trump\u2019s lawyer, according to Avenatti came from AT&T! But Cohen is not a lobbyist. Cohen has any been part of the Trump presidential campaign or administration. He\u2019s always been an outside lawyer. So AT&T was hiring Cohen to…what? Give them heads-up for what\u2019s going on in the administration? There\u2019s nothing illegal about that. There isn\u2019t anything illegal about any of this, as it turns out.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re trying to say, Avenatti\u2019s trying to say, “Some of this 500 grand from the Russians went to pay Stormy, my client, and that Trump paid off my client with Russian money!” This is what he\u2019s trying to allege. But, folks, all of this just doesn\u2019t add up, and I\u2019m going to try to illustrate this by going to the audio sound bites. First up is George Stephanopoulos. Now, if there were anything to this — and this Avenatti guy is a former Democrat operative, and he\u2019s apparently known for being late in paying bills.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
He has this $5 million due to the IRS, has not paid employees, has not deducted proper payroll taxes, apparently, over the course of his many years as a lawyer and businessman. If this guy… If this 500 grand from this supposed person with ties to Putin… If there was anything to this, I am here to tell you the Drive-By Media would be all over it, the Democrats would be all over it. Here\u2019s the thing to realize about this. The Cohen case was transferred to the Southern District of New York by who?<\/p>\n
By Mueller. Mueller had to know about this!<\/p>\n
If Mueller and his 16 anti-Trump lawyers didn\u2019t know about this, then how good are they? I maintain that Mueller did know about this and even knowing about this, he sent this case — the Cohen case — to the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Meaning this doesn\u2019t even rise to the level of interest to Mueller. (giddy) Yet Avenatti is trying to make the media jump on this as, “This is it. This is it! This is what we\u2019ve all been looking for! This proves collusion, Trump-Russia.” If it did, the media would be all over it.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s George Stephanopoulos today on Good Morning America…<\/p>\n
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, AT&T has confirmed, uh, the payments. Novartis has confirmed, uh, the payments. Columbus Nova has confirmed the payments, although they said it had nothing to do with Russia. What is illegal, uhhh, about that? Michael Cohen, attorney for the president, close to the president, sets up a firm in Washington, D.C., gives strategic consulting advice. What\u2019s wrong with that?<\/p>\n
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AVENATTI: Each company has given a different reason for retaining Michael Cohen — real estate, business consulting, health care consulting, the list goes on and on. Michael Cohen —<\/p>\n
STEPHANOPOULOS: Okay. But nothing wrong with any of that.<\/p>\n
AVENATTI: We don\u2019t know where this ends, but it doesn\u2019t smell right.<\/p>\n
RUSH: So this guy\u2019s got nothing. “We don\u2019t know where it ends, but it doesn\u2019t smell right”? People can hire Cohen! He\u2019s Trump\u2019s lawyer. He\u2019s an outside counsel. He advises people on real estate. So AT&T sent him money, and Columbus Nova sent him money, and even Avenatti says, “They all had different reasons for sending him money — real estate, business consulting, health care consulting, the list goes on.” So? So freaking what?<\/p>\n
This guy\u2019s trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. He\u2019s trying to say that there\u2019s criminal activity here when there isn\u2019t. And even his buds in the media think that there\u2019s nothing to see here. Here\u2019s Michael Zeldin. This guy is a TV analyst all the way back to Clinton-Lewinsky, days. Big Democrat, big Clinton supporter. He\u2019s on CNN. Alisyn Camerota says, “Michael, how do you see this?”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-09-at-4.42.46-PM.png\")
ZELDIN: Cohen\u2019s his right-hand man, he sets up a limited liability corporation in Delaware with his name fully transparent on it. These companies hire him to gain insight into what\u2019s the Trump administration position is on issues that affect their companies. That\u2019s all business as usual in Washington. I don\u2019t see anything on the face of it that\u2019s wrong about that.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Bingo! What Avenatti is trying to say is, “This is Trump\u2019s lawyer. It\u2019s sleazy. This is the lawyer that\u2019s dealing with my porn star client and paying her off, Stormy Daniels. This is sleazy! This guy is selling himself as a strategist and as a consultant.” “Yeah, but the payments are all legal. I mean, there are 10,000 people in Washington every day that do this.” “Yeah, well, let\u2019s see where it goes.”<\/p>\n
This Avenatti guy is a Democrat operative, first and foremost, a lawyer second, and it\u2019s clear he\u2019s doing some damage to himself here because he comes up with what appears to be this giant bombshell, and people look into it, and it\u2019s nothing. If this guy ever does come up with something, he\u2019s gonna have nothing but a bunch of doubters now questioning his competence and his motivation, because he clearly hopes and wants people to see things that are not there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: This guy's trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. He's trying to say that there's criminal activity here when there isn't.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":273628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n