- The Washington Times - Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Stormy Daniels’ lawyer got his Michael Cohens mixed up.

On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti released a seven-page document detailing “suspicious payments” to President Trump’s personal attorney, whom his porn-actress client is suing.

But according to reports Wednesday, at least two of the payments in the document, which Mr. Avenatti posted on Twitter, were to other men named Michael Cohen.

The Daily Caller reported that one of “wrong Michael Cohen payments” was a $4,250 wire transfer from Actuarial Partners, to a bank in Toronto.

Zainal Kassim, a representative for Actuarial Partners, forwarded an email from his Mr. Cohen to the porn-star lawyer requesting that he “correct this error forthwith and make it known publicly” that he got the wrong Michael Cohen.

“You are surely aware of the fact that this is an extremely common name and would request that you take care before involving innocent parries in this sordid affair,” Mr. Cohen wrote Mr. Avenatti in the email, the Daily Caller reported.


SEE ALSO: Michael Avenatti suggests Russians reimbursed Michael Cohen for Stormy Daniels payment


This Michael Cohen, the Daily Caller reported, is an international consultant who was paid by Actuarial Partners, a Malaysian company, for work on a project in Tanzania.

And a different wrong Michael Cohen came forward Wednesday.

Mr. Avenatti described as “suspicious” a $980 transfer from the Kenyan bank account of Netanel Cohen and Stav Hayun to the account of “Michael Cohen” at Israel’s Bank Hapoalim.

But Haaretz caught up with Netanel Cohen, who told the Israeli newspaper that this was a transfer to his brother, who also is not Mr. Trump’s lawyer.

“I’ve never heard of Michael Cohen, and I have no connection to this affair,” Netanel Cohen told Haaretz.

Other transfers listed by Mr. Avenatti have been confirmed from their senders, including corporate giants AT&T and Novartis, as having gone to the right Michael Cohen.

By now, Mr. Trump’s lawyer may be getting used to “wrong Michael Cohen” stories.

The leaked Christopher Steele dossier said Mr. Cohen visited Russian operatives in Prague in summer 2016 to coordinate election strategy — a highly illegal act if true.

But, as he proved by sharing his passport stamps with BuzzFeed, Mr. Cohen had never been to the Czech Republic. CNN reported that the Michael Cohen who visited Prague at that time was another person.

• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.

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