Do you have a link? What I see was that the payments occurred before the Russian(Vekselberg) was put on the sanctions list. And the Russian link, is that a NY company, whose biggest client is a company controlled by Vekselberg, gave money. There may be dots to connect, but at least on those facts there doesn’t appear to be a sanctions violation.
Possible bank fraud, campaign finance violations, and especially any evidence that the campaign knowingly took money from Moscow…would be serious as you say.
Looks like either I misread or the sources have been updated. You can never tell these days. So yes, he was under sanctions, but it doesn’t seem that the payment we’re talking about was while he was under sanctions. Meanwhile further digging appears to reveal Cohen’s shell company was getting large cash payments from whomever Trump was meeting with that week. i.e. Trump meets with Novartis’ CEO. At the same time, Novartis pays $400,000 to a shell company with no staff or resources of any sort, run by Cohen. Maybe coincidence. Also coincidence with Korea Aerospace Industries, up for a multibillion dollar military contract. AT&T’s in there too, but frankly they bribe everyone contribute to both parties. But how should one classify political contributions that don’t go to a PAC or campaign, but to the shell company of a personal lawyer? Hmm, campaign finance laws are tricky. EDIT: Wait, it’s “consulting” – that may actually be a big enough loophole to hide behind most of the time, wonder if it’ll work this time?
Also:
Adam Schiff just said that members of the House Intelligence Committee were interested in Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, but committee leadership wouldn’t allow anybody to look into him.