Michael Avenatti Drops Tweet Hinting At Evidence Trump Took Bribes From Foreign Nationals Before Inauguration
Donald Trump may have actively taken bribes from foreign nationals in the lead-up to his inauguration, lawyer and Trump foe Michael Avenatti seems to be suggesting.
The lawyer representing adult film star Stormy Daniels has been a thorn in the president’s side, even apart from the revelations that Trump had an affair with Daniels and then paid her $130,000 to keep her quiet. In recent days, Avenatti has been hinting at evidence pointing to deeper corruption, and he may have shared a major piece of that on Sunday.
In a series of cryptic tweets, Avenatti posted photos of men arriving at Trump Tower with Michael Cohen, the lawyer who arranged the Stormy Daniels hush money and allegedly sold access to Trump. The men were identified by Mother Jones magazine as a group from Qatar that included Ahmed al-Rumaihi. In a recent lawsuit, Ahmed al-Rumaihi was accused of trying to bribe the Trump administration.
In another strange twist, Ice Cube also accused Al-Rumaihi of trying to use the rapper’s BIG3 basketball league in a plot to bribe Trump officials, including Steve Bannon. Sport Trinity, an investment group that included the Qatari investors, has claimed that the lawsuit filed by Ice Cube and his business partner, Jeff Kwatinetz, is unwarranted and only serves the purpose of covering up mismanagement.
Michael Avenatti may not be the only one hinting at forthcoming evidence that Trump was taking bribes, Raw Story noted.
“The news of the men’s identities come mere hours after MSNBC commentator and military analyst Malcolm Nance outlined how Trump could be charged with ‘bribery’ under Section 4 of Article Two of the United States Constitution,” the report noted.
In his tweets on Sunday, Michael Avenatti even provided timestamps from C-SPAN video of Trump Tower during Donald Trump’s transition showing the Qatari officials.
Trump Tower 12-12-16
Go to 7:42:30 and watch for 30 seconds (entrance with Mr. Cohen).
And then proceed to 9:08:15 and watch for 35 seconds (exit). #Bastahttps://t.co/4qltMgNLxd— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 13, 2018
Earlier in the week, Michael Avenatti released a report detailing secret payments that went to corporations set up by Michael Cohen. As CNBC reported, these payments included $600,000 from AT&T that the company claimed was to help understand how Trump would approach the proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner. The Swiss pharmaceutical mega-company Novartis also paid Cohen $1.2 million in a bid to understand what changes Trump had planned to the Affordable Care Act.
The evidence raised questions of whether these companies were trying to buy influence with Donald Trump in the weeks before he took office, though Cohen has insisted that it was simply for consultation work.
Editor’s note: A spokesperson for Sport Trinity reached out to the Inquisitr with a statement regarding Kwatinetz’s affidavit.
“Simply put, the statements in Mr. Kwatinetz’s declaration are pure Hollywood fiction. Mr. Kwatinetz is engaging in a xenophobic PR smear campaign against Sport Trinity, the largest investor in BIG3 basketball, to cover up his own mismanagement and erratic behavior with respect to the league. Mr. Kwatinetz’s commercial dispute with Sport Trinity is meritless.”
