The statement was released when Columbus Nova was in the news for having hired then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen shortly after Trump won the 2016 election. At the time, in May 2018, there was significant curiosity about how and why Cohen would have been interacting with a Russia-linked company. The statement sought to address that concern.

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"Reports today that Viktor Vekselberg used Columbus Nova as a conduit for payments to Michael Cohen are false,” the statement read. “The claim that Viktor Vekselberg was involved or provided any funding for Columbus Nova’s engagement of Michael Cohen is patently untrue. Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else outside of Columbus Nova was involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement.”

On Wednesday, the government released a partially redacted version of a search warrant issued for records related to Cohen in 2017. In it, the connections between Cohen and Columbus Nova — and, apparently, Vekselberg — are detailed.

The first contact between Cohen and the CEO of Columbus Nova allegedly occurred Nov. 8, 2016, the day of the presidential election. The CEO of Columbus Nova is, as the statement suggests, an American. His name is Andrew Intrater, and he gave generously to Trump’s inaugural committee, to the tune of $250,000.

He is also Vekselberg’s cousin. Vekselberg joined Intrater at Trump’s inauguration.

Over the course of the year following Trump’s election, the warrant alleges, Cohen and Intrater communicated more than 1,000 times, including 230 calls and 950 text messages. On Jan. 10, Cohen received an email from Intrater with the subject line “About us / Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs,” the warrant claims.

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"This is the organization that Victor was mentioning yesterday,” the email read. It added that "[h]e is the head of this international relations committee of this group.”

This appears to be a reference to Vekselberg. A biography of Vekselberg on the website of a Russian organization identifies him as “a member of the Management Bureau of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP)” and says he “chairs the Union’s Committee for International Cooperation.”

The Cohen warrant also identifies a calendar entry for March 7, 2017, labeled as “Meeting with Victor” at a location identified as “Renova.”

Cohen entered into a consulting agreement with Columbus Nova. At one point, one warrant suggests, he was given office space at the firm’s headquarters. Over the first six months of the year, Cohen received six payments of $83,333 from Columbus Nova’s bank account. (The money came into an account Cohen had established for a new company called “Essential Consultants LLC” — a company he established to make a hush-money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels on behalf of Trump late in the 2016 campaign.)

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Most of those payments, the warrant suggests, originated from an account identified as “Renova US.”

“For example, on or about January 27, 2017, the Columbus Nova account at Bank 4 received a deposit of $83,333 from an account held in the name of Renova US,” it reads. “The same day, a check for $83,333 and drawn on the Columbus Nova account at Bank 4 was made out to Essential Consultants LLC.”

This pattern was repeated on at least four occasions.

What Cohen did on Columbus Nova’s behalf isn’t clear. He was not able to prevent Vekselberg from being included among targets of sanctions imposed in April 2017 by the Trump administration in response to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

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Previous news reports have linked Cohen to Vekselberg directly, no doubt prompting Columbus Nova’s initial response. Reading the statement closely now reveals precise language: Vekselberg didn’t provide funding for Cohen’s hiring — but Renova US did, according to the warrant. The claim that “[no one] else outside of Columbus Nova” provided funding to Cohen is called into question by the warrant.

It’s easy to see why investigators in mid-2017 would find these interactions to be significant. Over the course of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report on Russian election interference, however, neither Vekselberg’s name nor the name of Columbus Nova or Renova appear.

At least in the redacted version.