Russia-linked Company Created Alt-right Websites During Election

Donald Trump can bray all he wants that "there was no collusion with Russia," but circumstances increasingly seem to indicate otherwise, with Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, seemingly being one of the possible epicenters of Trump/Russia activities not otherwise readily explicable in the normal course of above board business. First we learn of large payments by a Russia linked firm to Cohen.  Now we learn that that firm was registering alt-right websites during the 2016 presidential election to possibly disseminate fake news attacks on Hillary Clinton and push bigoted voters towards Trump.  One can only hope that the Mueller investigation speeds up its investigation and gets to the bottom of what more and more looks like illicit activities.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post on these newest revelations: 

A company at the center of widening questions involving President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen is listed as the organization behind a string of websites targeted toward white nationalists and other members of the alt-right.

Columbus Nova, a company whose U.S. chief executive, Andrew Intrater, and Russian investment partner Viktor Vekselberg have both reportedly been interviewed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team, is listed as the registrant behind a handful of domains for websites named after the alt-right that were created during the 2016 election.It is unclear if any of these websites were launched or ever hosted content.

These sites include Alt-right.co, Alternate-right.com, Alternate-rt.com, Alt-rite.com, and other similar combinations, which were all registered in the two days following a speech given by then candidate Hillary Clinton in August 2016 in which she excoriated the far-right movement known for its extremist, racist, anti-Semitic and sexist viewpoints. 

Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, circulated a document on Tuesday that purported to show that Columbus Nova gave $500,000 to Cohen in the first half of 2017.

A spokesman for the company told The Washington Post that Frederick Intrater was not acting on behalf of Columbus Nova when he registered the sites, even though he had used his company email address and listed the organization. The spokesman said that Columbus Nova was not aware that the sites had been registered before Wednesday.

Avenatti’s document appeared to herald the potential that two explosive story lines could converge: the Russia investigation and the $130,000 payout to Daniels, with Cohen at the center.

Avenatti claimed that Vekselberg may have provided funds that “replenished the account” following Cohen’s payments to Daniels. Vekselberg has denied through a spokesman that he or the company he founded, Renova Group, have had any “contractual relationship” with Cohen.

If one looks at Trump's entire career, one sees a constant disregard for the law and associations with sleazy - if not criminal - individuals  and entities.  No one should be surprised that the patterned continued through the election through to today. #Notmypresident.