WASHINGTON — Already under investigation for a payment to a porn star, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney is facing intensifying legal and ethical scrutiny for selling his Trump experience and views to companies that sought “insight” into the new president.

One company, pharmaceutical giant Novartis, acknowledged Wednesday it paid Michael Cohen $1.2 million for services, though they ended after a single meeting. Others, including some with major regulatory matters before the new administration, acknowledged payments totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars over at least several months.

The corporate ties could suggest Cohen was peddling his influence and profiting from his relationship with the president. They also raise questions about whether Trump knew about the arrangement.

Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that the president didn’t know about the payments Cohen had received.

“The president was unaware of this,” Giuliani said, referring to the revelations about Cohen’s income that surfaced late Tuesday. “The president is not involved in any respect.”

Cohen’s corporate ties were first revealed in a detailed report released by an attorney for pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels. The report alleged that Cohen used a company he established weeks before the 2016 election to receive the payments from a variety of businesses — including $500,000 from one associated with a Russian billionaire. Financial documents reviewed by The Associated Press appear to back up much of attorney Michael Avenatti’s report. Cohen has called it inaccurate.

Lawyers for Cohen on Wednesday accused Avenatti of distributing false information about their client and asked a federal judge to deny his request to participate in litigation in New York about the federal criminal investigation.

The request to bar Avenatti, filed in federal court in Manhattan late Wednesday, alleges he may have improperly obtained Cohen’s private banking records and breached legal canon by arguing his case publicly rather than through the courts.

Three companies confirmed payments to Cohen. Novartis and AT&T both said Cohen’s Essential Consultants was hired to help them understand the new president during the early days of the Trump administration. Novartis said in a statement that it paid Cohen $100,000 a month for a year-long contract, thinking the longtime New York legal “fixer” with few Washington ties could advise on health care matters. After a single meeting they decided “not to engage further.”

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson met with Trump during the transition and has visited the White House as the company has sought approval to absorb Time Warner. The current CEO of Novartis attended a dinner with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this year, though the company stressed that the agreement with Cohen’s company predated the CEO’s time at the company and he was not involved with the deal.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that Columbus Nova, another company at the center of questions involving Cohen, is listed as the registrant behind a handful of domains for websites named after the so-called alt-right movement that were created during the 2016 election. It is unclear if any of the websites were launched or hosted content. Its U.S. chief executive, Andrew Intrater, and Russian investment partner Viktor Vekselberg have reportedly been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.

The report that Avenatti circulated purported to show that Columbus Nova gave $500,000 to Cohen in the first half of 2017.

Just what Cohen was selling was a key question Wednesday, particularly given that public records show he is not a registered lobbyist. Cohen could enter these relationships without violating federal lobbying laws if he did not seek to influence Trump on the companies’ behalf.

A spokesman for Novartis said the company was contacted in November by Mueller’s office regarding the company’s agreement with Essential Consultants, which expired this year.

Cohen also used the company to pay $130,000 to Daniels just before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with the future president.

On Wednesday, Cohen said of Avenatti, “His document is inaccurate,” according to NBC News.

Cohen has told associates that Avenatti’s claims are overheated, and he has maintained that he has not done anything wrong, according to a person familiar with the attorney’s views.

The Treasury Department’s Office of the Inspector General said Wednesday it was investigating how allegations about Cohen’s banking records became public.

Bloomberg News and Washington Post contributed.