This Is Why Oversight Matters (And It Won't Be Good for Novartis)
By Josh Marshall | July 14, 2018 10:27 pm
It got overwhelmed by news of the new Special Counsel indictments on Friday. But a group of Senate Democrats released a report late on Thursday (or early Friday) which shows why Congressional oversight is so important and what might be in store for next year. Most coverage of the report focused on the fact that Novartis gave Trump fixer Michael Cohen policy recommendations that ended up included in official administration policy. But that’s not the most important finding.
First, the report is by minority staff from four senators from a few different committees (different jurisdictions): Sens. Wyden (the lead), Murray, Warren and Blumenthal. Key is that since they’re in the minority they have no subpoena power. They had to ask the players involved and the players were free to say no, which most did. Novartis turned over communications between Cohen and the company but declined to turn over any company documents about its internal deliberations about its work with Cohen.
First, let’s review the backstory.
Back in early May Michael Avenatti released banking records that showed that Michael Cohen’s ‘Essential Consultants LLC’ was not only used to make payments to Stormy Daniels and other women. He also used it to set up as a de facto lobbyist selling access to and influence over the Trump White House and particularly President Trump, his client. The company which paid the most was Novartis, which signed a $1.2 million one year contract in February 2017 and paid for the entire year.
After the news broke, Novartis put out a statement the gist of which was that they signed up Cohen, eager to find access to the Trump administration. But on their first meeting with Cohen in March 2017 they realized he knew nothing about health care policy or Novartis and wasn’t going to be able to help them. So they cut off contact.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/this-is-why-oversight-matters-and-it-wont-be-good-for-novartis
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