essential consultants got paid for $400,000 by novartis, the global pharmaceutical company. according to the documents, the way they paid this is interesting was four separate payments to essential consultants to this little company michael cohen set up, which paid off the porn star, novartis paid $20 less than $100,000. they paid $99,980 on october 5, again on november 3, december 1 and january 5, 2018 this year. four payments, each for just under $100,000. almost as if there was a $20 wire fee that novartis was deducting. mr. avenatti notes it s true right after that last payment from novartis in january 2018, president trump did have dinner with the ceo of novartis.
daniels. he said no. he was then asked to follow up question, why would michael cohen pay her $130,000? the president s response is you ll have to ask that question of michael cohen. i ve talked to cohen about this. he said he paid her $130,000 to seal this confidentiality agreement. president trump did not need to know what he was doing. this is the point that stormy daniels attorney has been making that president trump didn t know about the agreement according to the way the way it s signed. but it says at the top that this agreement is between this company that michael cohen set up and/or david dennison, the pseudonym being used for president trump. it s valid by force of law because it s the either or or the and/or in that contract that says that she could have made
make the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels. that neither trump nor essential consultants has had enough time to file a petition to compel arbitration, which is what is expected. now, if you look more closely, as a part of his decision, the judge also notes that he will discourage folks from making requests for expedited proceedings, hearings and discovery that are not clearly supported by the law, and that that is basically discouraged. in other words, sort of trying to send a message that this kind of sort of premature rush actions are very much discouraged. now, michael avenatti has sent out a tweet in reaction to all of this. he says he plans to refile the motion as soon as donald trump, cohen or essential consultants file their motion to compel arbitration, seeking to hide the facts from public view. we expect this any day.
p.m. only on cnn. we do have breaking news at cnn about stormy daniels and her lawyer s attempt to depose donald trump. mj lee is here with the details. this is what michael avenatti wanted to do. he wanted to depose michael cohen, he wanted to depose donald trump. this was the big news from yesterday, the desire to depose michael cohen and president trump. this motion has been denied for an expedited trial and expedited discovery which essentially means that there is a temporary halt in michael avenatti s efforts to depose donald trump and michael cohen. just to walk you through this a little bit, a federal judge in california, this is where this motion was filed overnight yesterday, if you recall. this judge said this motion was essentially premature. what he says is that trump and essential consultants this is a company, you remember, that michael cohen set up in 2016 to
designed to keep daniels silent about an alleged affair with the president. cnn s mj lee joins with us the documents. what do they tell us? john, what we have now is one more link between the trump organization and the stormy daniel legal battle. these documents obtained by cnn yesterday are dated february 22 of this year, so they re very recent and they say jill martin represents ecllc, this is essential consultants, the company that michael cohen set up in 2016 to pay stormy daniels $130,000. now, jill martin s title is vice president and assistant general council at the trump organization. if you look there, the address listed on those documents is the address for the trump national golf course in los angeles. and she s not any lawyer of the trump organization, you might remember she spoke on behalf of candidate trump throughout the 2016 campaign and she s the second trump organization employee to have a direct