Avenatti: ‘Michael Cohen Was Selling Access to the Highest Office in the Land and Donald Trump Knew About It’

RUSH EXCERPT: 
TAPPER; 'He said — just to be clear on — the firm is Columbus nova. That has — that has ties to the Russian oligarch Viktor vekselberg and the claims that he used the company as a vehicle to pay Michael Cohen, that is false. Not there is no ties but it was wasn’t the oligarch himself funneling the money to use Rudy Giuliani’s word, funneling the money to Michael Cohen."
AVENATTI: "They said more than that because they claim they were entirely U.S. Owned and they seemed to suggest they had no ties whatsoever to the Russian parent company or the oligarch which is pate ebtly untrue. One statement from novartis last night which they had to back off and walk back today relating to how much money they had paid and what the involvement level was. So the companies are trying to put a spin out because the truth I think is very bad for them and very bad for Michael Cohen and potentially bad for the president.
TAPPER: "What is this truth that you talk about —"
AVENATTI: "I think that ultimately what is going to be disclosed is that Michael Cohen was selling access to the highest office in the land and Donald Trump knew about it and knew Michael Cohen was not a registered lobbyist and knew he wasn’t making the requisite disclosure and what is interesting to see, I think, Jake, ultimately is when you trace the money about what money came into this LLC and what money went out of the LLC and the president and Michael Cohen better hope that none of that money gets traced back to the president or the trump organization or another entity that the president controlled at the time. Because if so, I think that could have serious consequences."
TAPPER: "Do you have evidence that President Trump knew about this? Do you have evidence that some of that money going into this essential — essential consultants, this shell corporation that Michael Cohen set up, that some of the money did find its way into the coffers of the trump organization or any — or anything related to president Trump.
AVENATTI: "I’m not going to disclose right here right now the extent of the evidence that we have. And what it shows. We’ve been pretty measured in what we’ve released. And almost 100% of everything that we’ve released has checked out. You saw we released the summary last night. I think “The New York Times” and NBC confirmed and other outlets independently confirmed the information dish."