A porn star, an oligarch and corporate CEOs: Who's who in the Stormy Daniels-Michael Cohen saga

Show Caption Hide Caption Michael Cohen says Stormy Daniels' lawyer mixed him up with namesakes Michael Cohen is making his most astonishing claim of defense yet, insisting some of that supposed evidence leveled against him is being confused with another Michael Cohen. Nathan Rousseau Smith has the story.

WASHINGTON — What began as an investigation into the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russian agents seeking to influence the 2016 presidential campaign has now spun off into a soap opera-like detour into a tabloid sex scandal — but with high stakes for President Trump and his inner circle.

The cast of characters of this new drama includes a pornographic actress, Trump's New York "fixer," celebrity lawyers, corporate CEOs and a Russian oligarch.

They are:

Michael Cohen

Known for his hardball tactics and longtime loyalty to Trump, the 51-year-old New York lawyer is Trump's personal attorney and "fixer." Just before the 2016 presidential election, he arranged a $130,000 payment to a pornographic actress who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.

As the former executive vice president of the Trump Organization, Cohen represented Trump's personal and business interests, but also has his own business interests in real estate and taxicabs.

On April 9, the FBI raided his home, office and hotel room and seized records related to his business relationships with Trump and others.

Stormy Daniels

Also known as Stephanie Clifford, the 39-year-old pornographic actress claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, when he was newly married to his wife Melania.

Cohen and Trump have acknowledged paying her $130,000 just before the 2016 presidential campaign to buy her silence — although they deny the affair happened.

More: The $130,000 question: What the White House has said about the Stormy Daniels payoff

With lawyer Michael Avenatti, she's filed lawsuits against Cohen and Trump seeking to void her non-disclosure agreement and alleging that Trump defamed her by questioning her account of their relationship — including an episode in which she said she was physically threatened to keep her silence.

Michael Avenatti

The 47-year-old Newport Beach, Calif., lawyer represents Daniels in her lawsuits against Cohen and Trump and has become a ubiquitous face on cable television news.

Avenatti was the author of a seven-page dossier he released Tuesday alleging that Cohen was paid by U.S. companies and a Russian oligarch seeking favor with the Trump administration. The Treasury Department's inspector general is investigating how he obtained the bank records that formed the basis for those allegations.

In college and law school, Avenatti worked in politics for a Democratic firm run by Rahm Emanuel — who would later go on to become President Barack Obama's chief of staff and mayor of Chicago. He moonlights as a race car driver.

Rudy Giuliani

Best known as the mayor of New York City during the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the former Republican presidential candidate was hired in April as a member of Trump's legal team. He also served in the Reagan administration as the associate attorney general and U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Giuliani, 73, has seemingly tried to match Avenatti interview-for-interview, giving frequent comments to Washington reporters about the cases against Trump.

More: Rudy Giuliani says Michael Cohen's issues have nothing to do with Donald Trump

In an appearance on Fox News May 2, he disclosed that Trump had reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 Daniels settlement — arguing that he arrangement complied with campaign finance laws.

More: Trump could face more legal trouble after confirming he repaid Michael Cohen, watchdogs say

Viktor Vekselberg

The Ukrainian-born Russian businessman owns Renova group, a global conglomerate with interests in aluminum and oil. He's close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and last month the Treasury Department put him on a list of sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

Avenatti's bank records show that Renova's U.S. affiliate, Columbus Nova LLC, paid Cohen $500,000 in 2017. Avenatti has suggested, without evidence, that the Vekselberg may have been the ultimate source funds for the Daniels settlement.

Randall Stephenson

The AT&T CEO has had an up-and-down relationship with Trump. He's been invited to Trump Tower and the White House to talk about tax cuts and technology, and he's been supportive of Trump's efforts on both.

But he's also fighting against Trump on trade, and on AT&T's proposed $84 billion merger with Time Warner, which Trump opposes because of the media consolidation — and because CNN is part of the deal.

More: In hiring Michael Cohen, AT&T betrays a complicated relationship with Trump

Under Stephenson's leadership, AT&T has acknowledged paying Cohen at least $200,000 — and perhaps as much as $600,000 — last year "to provide insights into understanding the new administration," the company said. But the payment went to Cohen's Essential Consultants LLC, the same shell company Cohen set up to facilitate the payoff to Stormy Daniels.

Joe Jimenez and Vasant Narasimhan

Jimenez and Narasimhan are the former and current CEOs of Novartis, a Swiss-based drug maker that also sought to curry favor with the Trump administration in its first year.

The company has acknowledged paying Cohen $100,000 a month for nearly a year to "advise the company as to how the Trump administration might approach certain U.S. healthcare policy matters, including the Affordable Care Act," a company spokeswoman said.

More: Novartis says it paid Trump attorney Michael Cohen more than $1 million for nothing

The payments began about the time that Jimenez was invited to the White House for a meeting on health care just after the Inauguration, and continued up until a dinner meeting Trump had with Narasimhan in Davos, Switzerland, in January.

The company said Narasimhan was not involved in the Cohen contract, and Jimenez could not be reached for comment.