Shadow Ties of Michael Cohen embarrass Novartis, the company that didn't know who he was

After Novartis received much negative scrutiny for hiring Michael Cohen to provide insight into the Trump administration, its former CEO Joseph Jimenez says he didn't know who Michael Cohen was when he was hired. Such a claim seems to contradict the purpose of contracting Cohen in the first place, laid out by Forbes' Matthew Herper, who spoke with Jimenez: “The selling point was that [Cohen] knew the players in the Trump administration, which Novartis’ existing consultants did not.”

Cohen has been a lawyer in the Trump organization for years, though he didn't become a Republican until March of 2017. Cohen has represented Trump in the Stormy Daniels case and famously paid Daniels $130,000 in hush money from his own personal account. According to Wikipedia, “On April 3, 2017, Cohen was appointed a National Deputy Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee. In April 2017, Cohen also formed an alliance with Squire Patton Boggs for legal and lobbying counsel on behalf of Trump.”

Cohen, however, has held no official position in the White House. And just last month federal investigations began into his alleged bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

But Novartis is in the news for another reason: it was reported today that the FDA is shaming pharmaceutical companies that delay providing samples for generic competitors. On the list of shamed companies is Novartis, the company trying to mitigate its hiring of Cohen. Herper reported that Cohen advised Novartis to "get more involved in trying to stop the opioid epidemic” but that the company took no action on this advice.