AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson leaves the federal courthouse in Washington
"I haven't heard the president express any specific concerns about that", White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said when asked about the revelations of the payments to Cohen.
"There's not involvement of the president in any of that", he said.
A Democratic U.S. senator called for hearings about the company payments to the firm run by Cohen, a longtime attorney and self-described "fixer" for Trump.
Cohen, Trump's attorney and fixer for the past decade, is under criminal investigation in NY and his home and office were raided by the FBI last month.
At the time of the payments, there was an FBI counterintelligence investigation, which special counsel Mueller took over last May, into Russian election interference and any possible coordination with Trump associates.
A Canadian man with the same name as U.S. President Donald Trump's private lawyer says he's been mistakenly swept up in the high-profile legal battle between adult film actress Stormy Daniels and the president.
Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 to keep quiet about her alleged tryst with Trump in 2006.
They included a subsidiary of Swiss-based drug-maker Novartis, telecom giant AT&T and Columbus Nova, an American firm tied to Russian businessman Victor Vekselberg, who is under USA sanctions.
Cohen said a report published on Tuesday by Avenatti's law firm detailing the payments was inaccurate.
"It appears that this may be your typical pay-to-play type scenario, where you have someone close to a politician... selling access, potential access, to the president of the United States", Avenatti told CNN.
Kansas Supreme Court Justices prepare to hear arguments during a session in Topeka Kan
A senior official at Novartis told NBC News that Cohen reached out shortly after Trump's November 2016 election win "promising access" to the new administration.
"I don't believe that Michael Cohen is registered as a lobbyist", Avenatti continued.
Columbus Nova, a company whose US chief executive Andrew Intrater and Russian investment partner Viktor Vekselberg have both reportedly been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller III's team, is listed as the registrant behind a handful of domains for websites named after alt-right that were created during the 2016 election.
"Mr Cohen inexplicably accepted these payments while he was the personal attorney to the president", the Avenatti document said.
But the Malaysia-based company says it's "a case of mistaken identity" involving a former Canadian consultant also named Michael Cohen.
Among the other payments to Cohen were $200,000 from AT&T, whose proposed merger with Time Warner is now before the courts after the Justice Department sued to block the sale.
"Companies often hire consultants for these purposes, especially at the beginning of a new presidential administration, and we have done so in previous administrations, as well", the company said on Wednesday in the communication to employees.
Novartis Investments acknowledged making four payments of $99,980 each to Essential Consultants. Trump took office in January 2017 and Novartis signed a one-year contract a month later.
Payments to the companies "may well have been used to influence the president of the United States, using Michael Cohen and his shell company as a conduit", Senator Richard Blumenthal said at a news conference. Boston-based Stat News also reported that then Novartis Chief Executive Officer Joe Jimenez instructed his team to strike a deal with Cohen.
"Following this initial meeting", the statement read, "Novartis determined that Michael Cohen and Essential Consultants would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated related to U.S. healthcare policy matters and the decision was taken not to engage further".
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