At Dec. 2016 Meeting, an Alleged $1M Overture

Ex-Qatari delegate Ahmed al-­Rumaihi says Michael Cohen offered him access to Trump
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted May 17, 2018 8:15 AM CDT
Ex-Qatari Delegate: Cohen Wanted $1M From Me for Trump Access
In this April 26, 2018, file photo, Michael Cohen leaves federal court in New York City.   (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Michael Cohen seems to have kept busy after the election as a "Trump whisperer," and new developments out of the Mideast offer further revelations on his apparent attempts to cash in. Sources tell the Washington Post that in the days before a Dec. 12, 2016, Trump Tower meeting between Qatar's foreign minister, Michael Flynn, and Steve Bannon, President Trump's personal lawyer pulled aside Ahmed al-­Rumaihi, the chief of the investments arm of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, and offered access to the president for $1 million. The solicitation, which Rumaihi says he rejected, is the first time Cohen is alleged to have directly approached a foreign government with such an offer. Per the Intercept, Rumaihi says Cohen brought it up during a late-night conversation at the Peninsula Hotel about Qatar possibly investing in US infrastructure.

Neither attended the official Trump Tower meeting days later, but Rumaihi says he again talked to Cohen while waiting in the hall outside that meeting, and "it was clear that the deal was not going to happen." The Intercept notes Rumaihi, who is no longer part of the Qatari government, was initially wary of speaking out about the meetings but has since changed his mind for "complicated reasons." Cohen denied Rumaihi's claims in a text to the Intercept, noting: "These falsehoods and gross inaccuracies are only being written in the hopes of maligning me for sensationalistic purposes." Head to the Intercept for more. Slate, meanwhile, has video and stills of the players at Trump Tower on Dec. 12, 2016. (More Michael Cohen stories.)

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