Former Trump lawyer Cohen says Novartis ‘wanted him to be lobbyist’

Novartis’ dodgy dealings with the Trump administration have come under fresh scrutiny, as his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen told politicians that the pharma company had wanted to use him to lobby the government and president. Cohen was testifying against the president in a much-anticipated hearing at the House Oversight Committee, where he faced a grilling over Trump’s close links with Russia and how much the president knew about Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election campaign. The disgraced and disbarred former lawyer was giving evidence ahead of a three-year prison sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, tax fraud, bank fraud and lying to Congress.
But the politicians from the committee also wanted to hear about other controversies surrounding Trump – including the $1.2 million Novartis paid to Cohen in an attempt to gain influence with the president over a period in 2017-2018. The Novartis links first emerged last year in the separate scandal over payments from Cohen to cover up Trump’s alleged affair with the former porn star Stormy Daniels.