Reprinted with permission from AlterNet.
In the stories about Russia and President Donald Trump, things are almost always even more bizarre than they first appear.
Multiple outlets reported Wednesday night that Russian-linked firm Columbus Nova that paid Trump’s lawyer Michel Cohen hundreds of thousands of dollars following the 2016 presidential election also registered a series of website domain names tied to the alt-right.
Ben Collins of NBC News reported that the company registered alt-right.co, alternate-rt.com, and alt-rite.com, in addition to seven other variations. It also registered domain names not tied to the alt-right.
The Washington Post reports that Frederick Intrarater, the brother of Columbus Nova CEO Andrew Intrarater, registered the domains in his name as well as the company name. The company denied that Federick acted on behalf of the company, even though he used his company email address to register the domains and listed the company in the registration records.
Both Intrarater brothers are cousins of Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch. Michael Avenatti, who is representing a woman suing the president, has claimed that Vekselberg controls Columbus Nova, but the company has denied this.
What is the Russian-linked company’s ties to the alt-right? What business exactly did it do with the president and his lawyer? More questions keep emerging, while Trump and his associates offer few answers.
