By Cathy Burke From Newsmax

The Treasury Department’s inspector general has launched a probe into a possible leak of the banking records of President Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, The Washington Post reported.

The news comes a day after detailed claims about the banking history of Cohen’s company were revealed by Michael Avenatti, whose porn star client, Stormy Daniels, was paid $130,000 before the election to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump.

Inspector General Eric Thorson launched an investigation in response to media reports, counsel Rich Delmar told the Post.

A document posted on Twitter by Avenatti purportedly showed that Cohen received $500,000 last year from Columbus Nova, the U.S.-based affiliate of Renova Group, a company founded by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg. The business magnate attended Trump’s inauguration and has reportedly been interviewed by prosecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

The document also alleged Cohen’s company, Essential Consultants, received payments from others with business considerations before the federal government, including telecommunications giant AT&T, aircraft manufacturer Korea Aerospace Industries and pharmaceutical company Novartis. All three companies subsequently confirmed the payments.

Avenatti has been calling on the Treasury Department to release reports of unusual banking transactions by Cohen.

“The source or sources of our information is our work product and nobody’s business,” Avenatti said. “They can investigate all they want, but what they should be doing is releasing to the American public the three Suspicious Activity Reports filed on Michael Cohen’s account. Why are they hiding this information?”

Federal law requires banks to file Suspicious Activity Reports on unusual transactions that might signal a crime. Experts say the information Avenatti published appears to have come from such reports.

“This has the appearance of a leak,” Daniel Stipano, former deputy chief counsel in the Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, told the Post. “It shouldn’t happen, but things leak.”

Stipano said hundreds, if not thousands, of officials in law enforcement and government have access to a database of SARs.

Image: Treasury Starts Investigation Into How Stormy’s Lawyer Got Bank Records
Michael Avenatti, attorney for Stephanie Clifford, also known as adult film actress Stormy Daniels, speaks to reporters after leaving the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on April 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. Avenatti attended a hearing about Clifford’s lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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Related story:

Stormy’s Lawyer Has 2 Wrong Michael Cohens in Records

By Mark Swanson From Newsmax

Michael Avenatti’s document dump showing alleged questionable financial transfers involving Michael Cohen has glaring errors with at least two of the transactions — the wrong Michael Cohens.

Haaretz reported one of the errors. The Daily Caller reported the other.

Avenatti, the lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, went public with documents Tuesday showing, among other things, $980 transferred from a bank account in Kenya belonging to Netanel Cohen and Stav Hayun, Haaretz reports.

Netanel Cohen does not know Michael Cohen, personal attorney to President Donald Trump, but he does have a brother named Michael Cohen, the recipient of the $980, Netanel Cohen told Haaretz.

“It’s bizarre,” brother Michael Cohen told Haaretz. “It sounds ridiculous to me. How did they know about the financial transfer?”

He can thank a porn star’s lawyer for that one.

Meanwhile, Zainal Kassim, who represents Actuarial Partners, told The Daily Caller that Avenatti also got another case wrong. A $4,250 wire transfer from Actuarial Partners, based in Malaysia, to a bank in Toronto, should not have been part of Avenatti’s report, said the Michael Cohen associated with that firm.

“You are surely aware of the fact that this is an extremely common name and would request that you take care before involving innocent parties in this sordid affair,” Cohen wrote. “Actuarial Partners have already received inquiries from the press in this regard, and we would like to see this scurrilous rumour spiked as soon as possible.”

Image: Stormy’s Lawyer Has 2 Wrong Michael Cohens in Records
Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti (Seth Wenig/AP)

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