After the latest, breathless round of headlines regarding Stormy Daniels’ attorney revealing that he somehow learned of various large payments made to Michael Cohen, I read Allahpundit’s coverage of it last night. Most of the key background info is there in case you somehow missed it, but I came away with some troubling questions. It’s true that pretty much everyone on the left is in a frenzy, once again concluding that they’ve finally “got” the President on something big. Josh Marshall called it a “staggering revelation,” adding that “this is not hyperbole.” Plenty of media outlets have picked up on that theme, running headlines describing at least one pool of cash as having been “paid to Cohen by a Russian oligarch.”

But as I said, some of this just doesn’t seem to add up. The Associated Press has a rundown of what’s known so far, crafted in a slightly less fever swampy way. Here are some of the more troubling items in terms of how quickly everyone is jumping on the story. First there’s the “Russian money” which was paid by Columbus Nova. That’s being described as basically a clearinghouse for Viktor Vekselberg. But Columbus Nova disputes that.

Columbus Nova’s attorney Richard Owens stressed in a statement that the company is “solely owned and controlled by Americans” and said that, after Trump’s inauguration, the firm hired Cohen as a business consultant “regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures,” but that it had nothing to do with Vekselberg.

Even if they’re dodging the question (yet to be proven) the assumption seems to be that Vekselberg funneled money to Trump in an effort to purchase… influence? Considering that Trump slapped new sanctions on Vekselberg this year it wasn’t a very good investment.

Another big set of payments to Cohen came from AT&T. But since Cohen isn’t a lobbyist, was never part of the Trump presidential campaign and has never represented the White House (he’s Trump’s personal lawyer, not part of the administration) I’m failing to see how hiring him to “provide insight” into the new administration runs afoul of the law. And yet again, the biggest marker AT&T had on the table was their pending merger with Time Warner, which Trump has repeatedly come out against and actively sought to block. That would be another case of poorly invested funds if they were trying to purchase influence.

The idea that the Russian money (or the funds from any of Cohen’s other clients) went to “replenish” the bank account after paying Stormy Daniels was presented as pure speculation by Michael Avenatti with no evidence to even suggest that was the case. Cohen was being paid by a number of clients besides Trump. Further, we already learned that Cohen was reimbursed for the porn star payment by Trump himself so how could the Russian have “reimbursed” him also?

I’m also curious about what the rules are regarding telling a bank how you’re using an account? The bank supposedly “flagged” the payments as being potentially suspicious. I guess that’s fair enough if they feel that Columbus Nova has ties to Russia, but… AT&T? Are they tied to the Russians now? You can call Cohen’s bank account a “slush fund” if you wish, but he’s an attorney. He no doubt has payments from clients and for expenses ebbing and flowing all the time.

And finally, where did Stormy’s lawyer get this info? Going back to Josh Marshall (the same guy who described this story as “staggering”), he’s ready to speculate. There’s reason to believe that someone at Cohen’s bank leaked what’s known as Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) to Cohen. That’s confidential information about one of their clients. Yes, they have to send it to the government, but can the bank just give that to the media or, even worse, some random attorney who doesn’t even do business there?

There’s a lot wrong with this story. I wouldn’t get too carried away with it until we get some solid answers to the questions I sketched out here.