When we first released our analysis here at DC Tribune that Mitch McConnell was likely under investigation for his role in what is slowly unraveling as a wide-ranging effort by Republicans to cover for the President’s involvement in the Russian interference that took place on his behalf in the 2016 election, your response was immediate and immense: Thousands and thousands of you shared the article, believing as we do that the Senate Majority Leader is somehow complicit in the far-reaching crimes that put Donald Trump in the White House.
It’s important to note, however, that analysis is one thing, and something like video evidence is another thing entirely.
So we dug up some video evidence.
Back in May, CNN reported that Michael Cohen, the now-guilty former personal lawyer for Donald Trump, had met with Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Trump Tower on January 9th, 2017. That was during the transition, and the meeting was meaningful for a number of reasons. Number one, Vekselberg had no other business in Trump Tower that day. He lives in Moscow (and is the 4th-richest person in Russia). The CNN report indicated that Robert Mueller’s special counsel was questioning Vekselberg about a payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars to Cohen through his pass-through company, Essential Consultants, LLC.
If that name sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same front company that Cohen has now admitted in open court was used to pay off adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal — funds which were later reimbursed by the Trump Organization. The line of questioning by the special counsel indicates that Mueller believes Cohen was selling access to the President in advance of even his inauguration.
So how did they know that Cohen met with him that day? Well, C-SPAN runs a camera in Trump Tower. He’s on film there. You know who else is on film in Trump Tower on a not-otherwise-special-in-any-way Monday, January 9th, 2017?
See if you can spot him in the video:
Featured image via screen capture
