A Russian Oligarch and Trump.

Can anyone offer an explanation for this that's both plausible and innocent?

"A company tied to a Russian oligarch sent $500,000 last year to an entity that President Donald Trump’s lawyer used to pay hush money to porn actress Stephanie Clifford, her attorney Michael Avenatti claimed.

That and other revelations caught the president’s team off guard when Avenatti unveiled them Tuesday on Twitter. It’s the latest twist in litigation brought by Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, centered on a $130,000 payment that lawyer Michael Cohen arranged on the eve of the 2016 presidential election to secure Clifford’s silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

In a document made public online, Avenatti uncovered several corporate relationships. Among $4.43 million in transactions he identified as suspicious were deposits from AT&T Inc. and a unit of Novartis AG to the Cohen company. AT&T confirmed shortly afterward that it had paid Cohen a consulting fee late last year to provide “insights” into the Trump White House."

Collusion with Russians - for any purpose - always seemed doubtful to me, but I'd thought it was still worth investigating and ruling out, to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. After that we could go back to discussing policy like grown adults.

But increasingly a more parsimonious explanation is coming into view. Much like Harvey Weinstein, Trump seems to have run a significant and ethically compromising side operation simply to cover up his sexual misconduct. And Russians may well have been involved in it.