it's called columbus nova.t's now working hard to distance itself from the russian oligarch that has long had ties with it. and later, reaction from capitol hill to that, as well as the latest news about the president's personal lawyer, michael cohen. there's nothing small about your business. with dell small business technology advisors you get the one-on-one partnership you need to grow your business. the dell vostro 15 laptop. contact a dell advisor today. but there's no way to avoide that mi...s pmi, hey! this'll help. rocket mortgage® by quicken loans® makes the complex simple. there's also origination fees and... this takes care of it, thank you. yeah. understand the details and get approved in as few as eight minutes. broccabbage! beans! get your vegetables without a side of gas. the activated charcoal in charcocaps adsorbs gas for fast gas relief, without passing the gas. charcocaps. put less boom in the room. it's hard to get all the daily that's why i love fiber choice. it has the fiber found in many

investment vehicle for ren nova group.ater is a foreign director and current member of executive board. it is the same description that columbus nova has used for years. columbus nova said it was a quote u.s. based affiliate of renova group affiliated. listed columbus nova as one of the companies, an umbrella group that had it. the website changes are being made because the ties of renova are being misunderstood by the media. >> they are only taking this down now though. >> that's right. >> it is because of all of the access and the information that has come out. >> that is correct. >> a great deal of process here, joined by eric swalwell, democratic member of the house intelligence committee. the fact that columbus nova is now scrubbing its website in its effort to what it calls clarifying its relationship, what does it say to you? >> good evening. that would be considered as potential consciousness of guilt. every tree in the trump for rest shaken has a russian fall out of it. somebody who has close ties to vladimir puti

company, columbus nova llc released a statement saying as a general counsel of columbus nova i confirm vekselberg or any of his company owned any part of columbus nova is untrue. how important is this? >> well, i don't know the dynamics of that statement or what it means. we don't know what crimes were committed, who commitmented them, that is bob mueller's job to figure out. what we do know is that donald trump, michael cohen, trump and michael cohen's spokespeople have been lying to the american people about this for a long time, so they're trying to hide something. it is gone to be incumbent on mueller to figure out what that is and whether it's criminal activity charged in a court. >> vekselbergee cousin was a donor to the don donor to the rnc and the national committee, do you have any concerns about this at all? >> no, i don't at least yet. by the way, he's an american. when we talk about his cousin. last i checked, being of russian decent in and of itself is not a crime. i think michael cohen are going to answer these questions. what is not legitimate in my view is to say that b

company columbus nova llc released a new statement tonight saying as a general counsel of columbus novawned and controlled by americans. any suggestion that at any point in time viktor vekselberg or any of his companies owned or exercised any control over columbus nova is patently untrue. how important is this? >> well, i don't know about that statement or really what that means. the broader picture here as david lays out is very damning for the president and michael cohen. look, we don't know what crimes were committed, who committed them. that is bob mueller's job to figure out. what we do know, as we become even more clear tonights is that donald trump, michael cohen, donald trump's spokes peek, michael cohen's spokes peek have been lying to the american people about this for a very long time now. so they were trying to hide something. it's incumbent on bob mueller to figure out what that is and if it's criminal activity that can be charged in a court. >> steve, i want to bring you in now. vekselberg's cousin was a doan forethe rnc. he donated $250,000. trump's inauguration committee

columbus nova's ceo is vekselberg's cousin andrew introtter.kselberg's other cousin also works at columbus nova and is the one who registered dozens of website domain names to the company. >> they need to be able to explain what the relationship is, but it certainly looks like this is all tied together by the fact there's a family connection here but also a long-standing business connection. >> reporter: in all there were nearly a hundred domain names registered by frederick introtter on behalf of columbus nova. including eight with some vary united nations variations of the words alt-right. they were domain names made within two day of a speech made by hillary clinton. >> this is not conservativetism as we've known it, not republicanism as we've known it. these are racist ideas, race baiting ideas, anti-muslim, anti-immigrant all key tenants making up the racist ideology known as the alt-right. >> reporter: late today frederick introtter released a statement saying he bought the domain names with the aim of eventually selling them for profit a

columbus nova, the company, has since given a statement. we reached out to them for comment before the story, but they have now given us a statement in which i'll read part of it to you. it stays after the inauguration, the firm hired michael cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures. reports today that viktor vekselberg used columbus nova as a conduit for payments to trump are false. no one other than columbus nova's owners provided funding for his engagement. we have a confirmation from columbus nova that they were one of michael cohen's business clients. they's drawering the distinction saying this decision was made irrespective of viktor vekselberg. we know mueller questioned vi e vekselberg about this. >> it's suspicious that they just happened to pick michael cohen for real estate advice, nothing to do with his relationship with the president of the united states. to our knowledge -- i mean, it's not known if there was anything illegal about any of

a filing in 2007, columbus nova said it was the u.s.-based facility group of companies, one of the largest russian strategic investors. when it was found, it was renova u.s. manage l and since changed its name. as recently as april listed it as one of the companies out of two dozen that include under its group structure. now a spokesman said the website chaings are being made because the ties are misunderstood. they said the company is trying to make sure the people don't mistake it for a city of renova, now they have not responded to our request for comment on why they included the columbus nova on their website of the company and you know that's kind of where we are now. we're waiting, what remains to be seen if they adjust their relationship further on their website. i think a bigger picture at play here is renova and vekselberg have been put on a sanctions list. that's probably another reason why they're distancing themselves. >> isn't columbus run by vekselberg's cousin? >> yes, that's right. >> i want to be sure. >> you also have

they show payments of approximately $500,000 from columbus nova, the american investment firm tied to russian billionaire viktor vekselberg, who has close ties to vladimir putin. in a statement, a lawyer for columbus nova described the money as a "consulting fee," and said that vekselberg was "not involved in the decision to hire hihen." >> i think that receiving the payments, by the personal attorney to the president, michael cohen, it's highly suspicious. it may, in fact, show criminal honduct. >> reporter: avenatti says those crimes could include bank and wire fraud, or money laundering. cohen is under federal anvestigation, and last month, f.b.i. agents raided his home and offices in new york. at&t, novartis, and korea aerospace have all confirmed they too paid cohen for consulting services.

that's what columbus nova is. he technically maybe possibly wasn't an owner on the registration but the only assets they used, it is his piggy bank. >> what's your reaction to the story. >> i got a no comment from michael cohen when i went to him asking what the details of the meeting were about. i talked to someone who is a long time friend. he made the point that was interesting that the biggest mistake that michael cohen has made and i don't know that this is the biggest mistake but according to this person, the biggest mistake that he made he used the title personal attorney to president trump. if had just registered as a foreign agent, registered as a lobbyist, as a foreign agent, maybe joined the law firm officially that he worked out of, these meetings would perhaps be optically bad and not a great look for cohen and president trump, but now it's not just optics that look bad. these things may turn out to be shadier and dirtier than we know. >> to that point, i think the point about that is it all goes to h

what evidence do you have that vekselberg ordered instructed or urged nova to make any payment? >> first of all, his cousin was the ceo of the entity at all relevant times. that's a. b, "mother jones" i think did extensive reporting about a year or two ago relating to the connection between the u.s. subsidiary and the russian entity. so that's b. c, what's interesting about the statement that's have been made, don, is they still haven't told anyone truly what the arrangement was with michael cohen, what it was for, why did they hire michael cohen to undertake this effort and what they haven't said is that there was absolutely no contacts whatsoever or connection between their entity and this oligarch or russia. >> how do we know that this came from russia or vekselberg or that -- was it just nova acting on their own? >> what do you mean how do we know that? >> how do you know that? >> i won't disclose every aspect of what we know. here's what i will tell you. as i sit here right now, "the new york times" has confirmed the accuracy of our executive summary. nbc news has confirmed

that's what columbus nova is. he technically maybe possibly wasn't an owner on the registration but the only assets they used, it is his piggy bank. >> what's your reaction to the story? >> i got a no comment from michael cohen when i went to him asking what the details of the meeting were about. i talked to someone who is a longtime friend. he made the point that was interesting that the biggest mistake that michael cohen has made and i don't know that this is the biggest mistake but according to this person, the biggest mistake that he made, he used the title personal attorney to president trump. if had just registered as a lobbyist, as a foreign agent, maybe joined the law firm officially that he worked out of, these meetings would perhaps be optically bad and not a great look for cohen and president trump, but now it's not just optics that look bad. these things may turn out to be shadier and dirtier than we know. >> to that point, i think the point about that is, it all goes to his intention. the best case sc

-linked company called columbus nova to cohen. columbus nova is run by vikselberg's american cousin. and documents that were released by stormy daniels' attorney, michael avenatti, alleged that half a million dollars was paid to cohen beginning in january, 2017. and then last month, the trump administration put vikselberg on a list of sanctioned russians for election interference. what's not clear is the purpose of the payments that were made to cohen or the nature of the business relationship between cohen and vikselberg. the fact that investigators are scrutinizing this is significant because it essentially shows that a company created by michael cohen to pay hush money to stormy daniels was also receiving money, that same llc was also receiving money from a u.s. company in new york city that is linked to a russian oligarch. >> thanks. no comment yet from cohen or vikselberg. we have this statement from columbus nova's general counsel, quote, i can confirm that the company is 100% owned and controlled by americans. any suggestio

you immediately highlighted the columbus nova part of the transaction. what is your understanding of its significance? >> there was a series of payments that began in approximately january of 2017. oh it would have coincided with this meeting that took place at trump tower. and that those payments continued for some time. my understanding, our understanding is consistent with the "new york times" piece. i think what you're seeing here, is that the noose on michael cohen to the extent it can get any tighter and i don't think it can, but just when i think it can't, it certainly does get tighter is getting tighter by the day. >> isn't it bad for your client if it gets tighter? because what that means is a long drawn out criminal process in which what you're trying to get is essentially paused. >> i don't think so. we filed a motion yesterday to lift the stay in the case in california. arguing that because of rudy giuliani's statements and those of mr. trump as well as tweets, et cetera, that we should be able to proceed with the case and have the stay lifte

then there's columbus nova, linked to the russian oligarch that reportedly paid $1 million. the company now denied he had anything to do with hiring cohen. columbus nova has scrubbed its website in order to distance itself and novartis, the pharmaceutical firm, that raises a number of questions. the company says it paid him $100,000 a month for a year, even after realizing he couldn't deliver what they had offered, they apparently took one meeting. novartis' formal payments to outside lobbying firms averaged under $12,000 a month, less than a eighth of what it paid cohen to do zero work. the total of $1.2 million novartis is paying cohen exceeds any single lobbying contract in all of washington last night, according to analysis by politico. if you want analysis that his so-called consulting work might not have been on the up and up, a magistrate judge and upper levels of the department of justice signed off on a warrant to raid cohen's office and residences. joined by two journalists hot on the trail of this story. rosalyn, let me start with you. you have a new scoop about t

i think that columbus nova is a shell operation. that he is from my understand, a cousin to vekselberg. he has paid michael cohen close to a million dollars and it is a company located just outside my district, interestingly enough, that is interested in gaining traction in silicon valley. but they have basically given that is all money to michael cohen for what purpose? he can't bruce them to anyone in silicon valley. >> right so i want to be clear. i asked you, they said they had zero involve. . do you buy it. when you said yes, you're saying you buy there was involve m. just to be clear. >> yes. >> okay. so i know congresswoman that you have been aware of vekselberg for quite some time. as you point out, this company located outside your district, what more can you tell us about vekselberg? >> well, actually, i can't tell you much more about vekselberg because we haven't had the opportunity to interview him because the committee has been prematurely shut down in its investigation. we are now operating as a minority, member of the

affiliate, columbus nova says, no connection to that russian oligarch.how do you know he directed the payment? >> they've said all kinds of things that make no sense. they're distancing themselves for some reason from the entity. we have evidence that viktor vekselberg was involved and the money to michael cohen, and here's the larger question in my view as of this morning, what happened to that money and what happened to all of these other monies that came in to this account that michael cohen set up? where did that money go? >> maybe it's still in the account? >> no. it's not all still in the account. did that money go to michael cohen? did it go to the president? or the trump organization? did it go someplace else? what happened to that money? >> in terms of the connection to stormy daniels, she was paid before this money came into the account, so are you suggesting that somehow a russian oligarch was reimbursing michael cohen for that payment? >> what i am suggesting is that that may, in fact, be the case because according to our investigation those

that columbus nova paid michael cohen $500,000. columbus nova is a management company solely owned and controlled by americans. after the inauguration, they hired him as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures. reports say viktor vekselberg used columbus nova has a conduit for payments. neither vekselberg nor anyone else other than the columbus nova's owners were involved in the decision to hire cohen or provided funding for his engagement. what do you think of that? >> it will be up to investigators to find the truth behind it. the only difference i think i have with michael, and i respect his opinion quite a bit, is just that i think that, you know, this was the llc that was set up to pay daniels and potentially other women. i think those payments and how -- where that money comes from will be of interest. it becomes a foreign source, that's a problem. and also as stormy daniels's lawyer talked about yesterday, there were -- he alleges there were fal

columbus nova obtained him as a consultant.ere's the question, why would cohen deal with any company, with any links to russia for any reason, at a time when the president was already under massive scrutiny for russia ties? that is an open question, and one that surely has occurred to special counsel bob mueller. in fact, both is vekselberg and the columbus nova ceo has been interviewed. that's the first part of the story. the other focuses on a series of other payments made to cohen's company all made by major corporations all coming in the last month. pharmaceutical giant nov vast this paid almost 400 grand. and at&t, 200,000. and korea air 150,000. n nov artis entered into a deal. at&t said cohen's company was hired to provide insight. they did no legal or lobbying work for us and the contract ended in 2017. again, we can take the companies' statements at face value. but when you have big companies reaching out like this it raises questions what they were seeking in turn. interesting to note that the ceo of novartis and how

columbus nova described itself as, the u.s. based affiliate of the renova group of companies, one of the largest russian strategic investors. renova is run by viktor vekselberg, cousins with the founder of columbus nova. he was sanctioned last month and questioned by special counsel robert mueller's investigators earlier this year about payments made to cohen. columbus nova is attempting to distance itself from srebg is sell berg. removing this about the founder's ties from its website. a spokesman said the website changes from being made because the ties to renova are being misunderstood. facing accusations of engaging in the very behavior he slammed his opponent for in 2016. >> access and favors were sold for cash. it's called pay-for-play. it's illegal. >> secretary sanders refusing to comment. >> as you know due to the complications of the different components of this, i would refer you to the president's outside counsel to address this concern. >> this as both at&t and novartis saying they have cooperate build their busine

columbus nova paid michael cohen. if you look at the bocks, there is no connection between michael cohen and the first box. we don't know that vekelsberg gave him any money. we know columbus nova did. it does a lot of been, other than the business it does with renova. is it just smoke? >> it very well may be. if there are charges against michael cohen for bank fraud and other potential crimes, he may have information that incriminates the president -- >> there haven't been any charges yet, to be clear. >> no charges yet, but he is being investigated. if he is being investigate, these are all leverage points a prosecutor could use to get more in the same way he is using that against paul manafort, former campaign chairman. i think, you know, you go back to the campaign, you go back to the curiosity that was trump's fascination is and adoration of vladimir putin. why was of that there? did the russians have something on trump, as suggested by former intelligence officials? perhaps this shows that opening. it is an area

cohen through a company named columbus nova llc beginning in january 2017, continuing until at least august 2017. according to the documents, those payments added up to approximately $500,000 and it, quote, appears these funds may have replenished the account following the payment to ms. clifford, aka stormy daniels. the documents also reveal payments from corporations like novartis, the pharma giant, at&t, korea aerospace. here is michael avenatti on this network in just the past hour. >> there's no question that this has all the markings of a pay to play-type scenario. this is a president who ran on this whole candidacy of draining the swamp and how the lobbyists were going to be closed out of the process, and they weren't going to be allowed into the white house anymore. meanwhile, now we find out that you have michael cohen, who had an office next to donald trump in trump tower for many, many years, and this guy appears to be selling access to the president of the united states. >> nbc news has also reviewed financial documents that appear to support avenatti's account of this tr

columbus nova is a private equity firm with over $2 billion in assets. columbus nova is the u.s. investment vehicle for renova group, which is a multinational company controlled by viktor vekselberg. okay. so, michael cohen, president's lawyer, with a background in, like, the taxi business, sets up this little delaware shell company as a way of paying the porn star, paying stormy daniels that $130,000 right before the election. he says publicly to come up with that $130,000 to pay stormy daniels, he had to take out a home equity line of credit. a new lawyer for the president, rudy giuliani, says that ultimately that $130,000 was slowly reimbursed to mr. cohen over a period of months when the president paid michael cohen $35,000 a month over time during 2017. well, we now find out that that little company that paid out the 130 grand to stormy daniels apparently causing significant financial hardship to michael cohen that little company also paid michael cohen over a million bucks and tons more money was being paid into that company. not by michael cohen's home equity loan, but by

it may be a coincidence that he was a client at columbus nova. these certainly, joe, are questions that mueller has long been looking into. >> mika, you know, obviously mueller has been looking into these questions for some time. when you hear about donald trump, his fixer getting paid money for these large corporations to meet with donald trump, i don't know where this money went. it's all speculation right now. i do know this, though, that every time you and i spoke with donald trump before the campaign or during the campaign, he would always say the same thing. he would say look at my ratings. and he would say why does cnn or msnbc make all this money? i should be making all this money. he would say this publicly, too. he talked about how much money the networks were making for the debates. and seriously, was thinking about charging to show up at the debates. and people say, well you can't do that, they're not going to let you do that. my point is this -- donald trump would believe, i know he would believe, knowing him for a decade, if he were

columbus nova is now attempting to distance itself from vekselberg. removing this information about its founder's ties to renova group from its website. the website changes are being made because the ties to renova are being misunderstood. cohen now facing accusations of engaging in the very behavior the president slammed his opponent for in 2016. >> access and favors were sold for cash. it's called pay-for-play. pay-for-play. it's illegal. >> reporter: press secretary sarah huckabee sanders refusing to comment. >> as you know, due to the complications of the different components of this investigation i would refer you to the outside counsel so address those concerns. >> reporter: this as both take a and novartis confirm that they have cooperated with mueller's investigators about their business dealings with cohen. in a court filing, cohen's lawyers confirming the payments. accusing stormy daniels's lawyer michael avenatti who initially published the details of the transaction about publishing other information about the wrong michael cohen. cohen's

columbus nova is issuing a statement saying the company is american-roled.hey denied vekselberg had ever owned it or used it for payments. does the evidence support that claim? >> katy, not surprisingly, it's more nuanced than that. our understanding of it based upon looking at corporate records, website records, and also the states from the people involved with the companies themselves, columbus nova is part of the renova group, which is victor vekselberg's company. it is a big company. they have investments in various industries. they are in the minerals industry, the oil industry, telecommunications industries in other investments that he has. this is kind the american investing arm of victor vekselberg. in addition to that, if ceo of columbus nova is andrew intrader, and he's a relative of vex vek. while there is a clear situation between the two companies to some degree to say they are entirely separate entities, say ge and at&t, yeah, it's not quite that way. >> he has what is being described as a complicated relationship with vladimir putin. why is it

columbus nova have given us a statement.hed out to them and they have given us a statement in which i will read part of it to you. after the inauguration the firm hired michael cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources. reports that viktor vekselberg used columbus nova as a continue wi for payments to michael cohen are false. neither viktor vekselberg nor anyone else other than doll lum bus nova's owners were involved in the decision to hire company hen or provided funding for his engagem. we know mueller's investigators did question vekselberg about this. >> it is hard to believe that they just happened to pick, just the point that mr. avenatti made earlier, that they happened to pick michael cohen for real estate advice and nothing to do with his relationship with the president of the united states. to our knowledge, it is not known that there is anything illegal about these payments. >> there isn't. and nothing from at least what we have been told by our sources specifically by one source who has knowledg

the columbus nova said we paid him to help us find investors and for real estate advice. columbus nova has a multibillion portfolio of massive investment class real estate investments all over the world. michael cohen has worked on a handful of mostly failed deals. it's absurd and laughable the story we're getting which of course makes every journalist in america think well what are we not getting. >> maybe really wanted to get in the medallion business adam davidson and jed shugerman, great to have you here. i'm joined by former assistant attorneys from the southern district of new york, the same office currently investigating michael cohen. there is nothing wrong with someone hiring a person for consulting services, if the consulting service is i tell you how donald trump think, right? >> that's correct. >> that seems to adam's case when you're talking about what the legal issue here is, that's the best case scenario for all involved is that this was an up and up transaction of those services. >> yeah, you could even go a step farther and say that they thought they were

columbus nova that said it hired nova as a business consultant regarding capital and investments in real estate and other voentures has ties to russian oligarch viktor vikselberg. the general counsel of columbus nova insist the russian oligarch has no control of the company saying the company is 100% owned and controlled by americans. any suggestion that at any point in time viktor vikselberg or his companies owned or exercised control over columbus nova is untrue. they insisted they did nothing wrong in hiring him for consulting work. at&t rk at&t, which is trying to buy time warner paid cohen $200,000. he was hired to provide insights into understanding the new administration and novartis said it quickly he could not provide what they wanted in health care matters. the company still mayed him nearly $1 million over a course of the year. novartis was contacted over the special counsel over its payments and provided information requested. >> this guy is a lawyer, a real estate agent, he's a doctor. he's a businessman. >> how's a doctor? >> novartis hired him to con consult on health care

i want to get into this dispute now with columbus nova. that is the american-based company that "the new york times" is reporting tonight their biggest client is the russian oligarch that you're talking about, viktor vekselberg. and so they issued this statement tonight in response to what you've released today saying "columbus nova is a management company solely owned and controlled by americans. after the inauguration, the firm hired michael cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures. reports today that viktor vekselberg used columbus nova as a conduit for payments to michael cohen are false. the claim that viktor vekselberg was involved or provided any funding of columbus nova's engagement of michael cohen is patently untrue. neither viktor vekselberg nor anyone its other than columbus nova's owners were involved in the decision to hire cohen or provide funding for his engageme engagement." >> you want me to react to that? >> yes. >> well, you know wh

i never told my brother or anyone else at columbus nova that i had done this. his brother, again, is the ceo, also a cousin with that russian oligarch. the domain names, john, never used to build any websites and they, in fact, have now expired. >> all right. drew griffin, thanks very much. one of the many questions looming over the mueller investigation is whether the president will agree to an interview and whether he has had to comply, or whether he will comply with any possible subpoena. so, what is a president to do in that situation? depends who you ask. if it's rudy giuliani or rudy giuliani. here he is last weekend. >> what happens if robert mueller subpoenas the president? will you comply? >> well, we don't have to. he's the president of the united states. >> so, that was rudy giuliani now. how about rudy giuliani then? this is the summer of 1998. same rudy giuliani, different president. bill clinton was in of the at the time. and charlie rose was still on the air. >> if the president is asked to testify, subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury and s

a spokesman for columbus nova, the u.s. affiliate of renova, had this to say. columbus nova is a management company solely owned and controlled by americans. after the inauguration, the firm hired michael cohen as a business consultant regarding sources of capital and investments in real estate and other ventures. reports today that viktor used it as a conduit for payments is fap false. neither viktor nor anyone else was involved in the decision to hire michael cohen or provided funding for his engagement. i mentioned that the giant telecom company at&t also reportedly paid $200,000 to essential consultants. they released this statement tonight. essential consulting was one of several firms we engaged in to understand the new atd minu administration. the contract ended in december 2017. a couple of things are interesting about that. first of all, at&t is hiring essential consulting to provide insights to under the new administration. i don't know who they is unless they consider michael and cohen to be two people. at&t is saying they needed to hire this firm, m

when we come back why columbus nova, the company that paid cohen almost $500,000 names related to the alt right.

columbus nova is scrolled in part by a wealthy russian named victor vekselberg. the firm's ceo is an american. also happens to be the cousin of victor vekselberg. cohen actually met these two at the inauguration after columbus nova donated quarter of a million dollars to the inauguration fund according to campaign finance records. the firm denies vekselberg was involved in hiring cohen. he is one of the ruchest men in russia and ier this year he was questioned by agents working for special counsel mueller. back to cohen. cohen's essential consultants also got $150,000 from korea aerospace industries in november 2017. the "new york times" reports the company partnered with lockheed martin trying to nab a several billion dollar contract with the u.s. air force. the company hasn't responded to nbc for comment. what does all of this mean? there are a lot of questions whether these payments were legal and why the companies involved made them. so i brought up my buddy, msnbc legal analyst danny is a val owes. try to make sense of this for us. we have been struggling th

there are a lot of open questions, and they're exacerbated by the connections between columbus nova and viktor veklesberg, a russian dplasolig and someone who has been sanctioned through his affiliations with renova and others. >> he was questioned by fbi agents working with mueller when he arrived in the united states not that long ago. he's now been sanctioned by the treasury department. why is all of this such high interest to mueller and his team? >> as novartis said, mueller approached them in november of last year, six months ago. so they have been cued into michael cohen's role through essential consultants, and perhaps otherwise for quite some time. there were -- there was allegations in the steele dossier that michael cohen went to prague and met with european hackers. michael cohen has been trump's fixer for a long time. so mueller is digging deep and many months ahead of where we are right now, as ault of this is coming to the fore. but he's digging deep into the connections between michael cohen and russia and it's beginning to percolate more and more. >> mueller and his tea

stand out here, one, you were talking a minute ago about viktor vekselberg's american company columbus nova and the company saying that they're american. they have nothing to do with vekselberg. well, as it turns out, a year ago we at mother jones wrote about vekselberg in this company. at that time on their website they were listed as a subsidiary of renova, which is viktor vekselberg's company. so if you go back in the way back machine, you can find not too far back, not too way back that they were listed as a subsidiary. and to me the interesting thing is we wrote about vekselberg at the time because the president of the american subsidiary, who is an american citizen, happens

katty: nova, you're here in windsor.ou're going to be watching along the procession route somewhere? >> yes, i will. katty: what are you most excited about and looking forward to seeing tomorrow? >> t energy, t atmosphere and what she's going to be wearing. i want her to do something different. katty: it's 2018 and women still want to be a princess bride. amazinging isn't it?ys >>f included. christianically: i don't know anything about wedding style, can you hear? it seems to me the style lately has been figuregi h and -- what happene tthe big blamanges? reporter: princess diana was e last one.nk katty: tou very much for joining us. we will not take fashion tipsan from chris thank you very much. reporter: my pleasure. katty: developing news out of cuba. authorities say that a boeing 737 has crashed there shortly havana king off from airport. it was on an internal life -- flight from the capital to the east of the island. christian: 104 passengers were on board.'r joined from our studio in london. leonardo has been watchi

but an attorney with columbus nova said last night that the company's ownership is entirely american,t vekselberg had nothing to do with business with cohen. according to avenatti's memo, unconfirmed by abc news, essential consultants received a total of $4.4 million including wire transfers from a number of major corporations doing business inside the united states. among them, at&t which wired cohen payments totaling $200,000. last night, at&t, which has a major merger with time warner pending, is being challenged by the justice department, did not dispute the transaction saying essential consultants is one of the several firms we enfajed in 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration. they did no legal or lobbying work for us and the contract ended in december 2017. cohen whose home and offices have been recently raided by the fbi has not been charged with any crime. both he and his attorney did not respond to abc news' request for comment on avenatti's claims. throughout mueller's investigation they have maintained that cohen has done nothing improper. it's

andy intrader because columbus nova is a company managed and owned by him.id reach out to andy intrater. columbus nova saying a management company solely owned and controlled by americans after the inauguration the firm hired michael cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures. reports today that victor used columbus nova as a conduit for payments to michael cohen are false. you saw as cohen was leaping into the cab there that he contends much of what was posted online by michael avenatti is inaccurate. citation on july 149, 2016. michael co-were cashed a check in palm beach county, florida. michael cohen is actually on vacation with his family on the italian island of capri on july 14th, 2016, shep? >> shepard: that is the information that we have. there is more to this. at&t and the drug company novartis acknowledged they paid this same firm, this same llc of sorts which is michael cohen hundreds of thousands of dollars after the election. for what? john, what do they say

so this american company, columbus nova, that paid cohen $500,000. it's an american company. yes, but it's run by the cousin of this billionaire oligarch. this guy also was the single biggest shareholder at the bank of cyprus. everyone knows that cyprus is a known location for a lot of -- >> wilbur ross. >> wilbur ross was the vice president of the bank at the time while this billionaire was the single largest investor in the bank of cyprus. he attended the inauguration. who did he get the ticket for the inauguration from? his cousin. the same person who runs this company that we just found out gave $500,000 to michael cohen last year. >> that company gave $250,000 for the inaugurtion. >> for the inauguration as well, yes. so you can't sit here and tell me this is not some kind of sophisticated operation for influence. they know what's going on. these are not people who don't understand how our political system works. so the fact that there is -- if anyone's looking for collusion, these are the kinds of things that are, i would say, point directly to

columbus nova is distancing itself from vekselberg.e said, as the general counsel of columbus nova, i can confirm that the company is 100% owned and controlled by americans. any suggestion that at any point in time viktor vekselberg or any of his companies owned or exercised any control over columbus nova is patently untrue. it is important to note that so far prosecutors have not accused michael cohen of any wrongdoing in regard to these payments or any other business dealings but his finances have come under increasing scrutiny. all is part of the investigation that's now being handled out of new york. at the same time as we're learning about these payments, hundreds of thousand dollars, it turns out stormy daniels's lawyer, michael avenatti, he's also disclosed some documents that appear to show a shell company that was set up by michael cohen before the election to pay off stormy daniels, that shell company, allegedly received money from several companies, multi-national companies, including companies like at&t. we heard from at&t

so, too, did columbus nova, american firm's biggest client is controlled by russian billionaire.from columbus nova was actually made by him, the company flatly denies it, quoting "reports of using columbus nova as a conduit for payment to michael cohen are false. neither victor nor anyone else outside of columbus nova was involved in the decision to hire cohen or provided funding for his engagement. we should note, he and at&t were both questioned by special counsel robert mueller regarding those payments. but michael avenatti also speculates the money from columbus nova was to reimburse the $130,000 of hush money paid to stormy daniels. though avenatti has no documents to back up his claim. it turns out two other alleged fraudulent payments laid out by avenatti were cases of mistaken identity. they were reportedly paid to michael cohen's s, but not the e who represents the president. where did he get his information, correct and incorrect? business insider said it is likely it came from sars, says bitzer's activity reports, filed by pinks and casinos with the treasury department