# Michael Cohen Trump's personal attorney and fixer (2006-2018) who served as the primary negotiator for the Trump Tower Moscow project during the 2016 campaign and later became a key cooperating witness. ## Trump Tower Moscow Cohen was the lead on the Trump Tower Moscow deal that continued well into the 2016 presidential campaign: - Received proposal from Russian company I.C. Expert (Andrey Rozov) with broker **[[Felix Sater]]** - **October 2015**: Trump signed letter of intent — $4M upfront fee, licensing revenue - Cohen testified the deal included a proposed **$50 million penthouse for Putin** - **January 14, 2016**: Cohen contacted the Kremlin directly, reaching Putin spokesman [[Dmitry Peskov]]'s office - Received a 20-minute callback from a Peskov assistant - Financing planned through [[VTB Bank]] (under US sanctions) and Rotenberg associates (also sanctioned) - Later told Congress the deal fell through because "he won the presidency" - **Initially lied to Congress** about the timeline, claiming negotiations ended in January 2016 when they continued through at least June 2016 ## Conviction - August 2018: Pleads guilty to tax fraud, bank fraud, campaign finance violations (hush money payments) - November 2018: Pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump Tower Moscow timeline - Sentenced to 3 years in federal prison - Became a cooperating witness; testified extensively before Congress ## Essential Consultants and Russian-linked payments Cohen created the shell company **Essential Consultants LLC** in October 2016 to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000 — the payment at the center of the [[Stormy Daniels Hush Money Case]]. After the election the same account took in large "consulting" payments, including roughly $500,000 from [[Columbus Nova]], a firm tied to sanctioned Russian oligarch [[Viktor Vekselberg]]'s Renova Group, alongside payments from Novartis, AT&T, and Korea Aerospace. The overlap — the felony-conviction vehicle also receiving Russian-linked money — is one of the threads connecting Cohen's fixer work to the broader [[Russia]] picture. ## Congressional Testimony (February 2019) Cohen's public testimony before the [[House Oversight Committee]] was explosive, calling Trump "a racist, a conman, and a cheat" and providing documentary evidence of financial crimes. He described Trump's awareness of the [[Russia]] contacts and the Tower Moscow negotiations. ## Significance Cohen is the insider who flipped. His testimony and evidence provided a direct window into how the [[Trump Organization]] operated — including the simultaneous pursuit of a massive Moscow real estate deal while Trump was running for president and publicly denying any Russian business interests. His lie about the timeline — and Trump's apparent awareness of it — illustrated how the Russia business connections were actively concealed from the public during the campaign.