Sarah Tew/CNET

AT&T paid Michael Cohen's private firm $200,000 to better understand President Donald Trump.

The revelation emerged from an executive summary shared on Twitter by Michael Avenatti, who is representing former porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. According to the document, AT&T made four payments of $50,000 each between Oct. 3 of last year and Jan. 3 to Essential Consultants, a Delaware firm that was reportedly created in October 2016 ahead of the US presidential election to pay Clifford. Cohen is Trump's longtime personal lawyer.

AT&T confirmed the payments, but not the amount. It also denied that Essential did any legal or lobbying work for the company.

"Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration," a spokeswoman said in an email.

The revelation comes as AT&T spars with the US Justice Department over the right to acquire Time Warner. AT&T argues that the deal is critical to enabling the company to compete against tech titans like Google and Netflix, and that the deal doesn't snuff out a competitor. The US government argues that combining a telecom giant, which owns wireless and wired Internet assets, with one of the premiere media properties in the world, would create too powerful a player in the media landscape.

The White House wasn't available to comment on the story.