A lawmaker is opening an investigation into Novartis for paying $1.2 million to President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, in an attempt to gain access to the White House, a disclosure that has prompted widespread criticism of the drug maker.
The company has said it agreed to a one-year contract, beginning in February 2017, with Cohen’s firm, Essential Consultants, in order to create a direct channel to the Trump administration about “health care policy matters.” The arrangement, however, has been widely derided because Cohen is not a lobbyist or an expert in health care matters. And Novartis said it let the contract lapse when it expired.
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