Trump ‘Fixer’ Michael Cohen Went To Prague During 2016 As Dossier Alleges, Cell Phone Records Reportedly Show
One of the most explosive allegations in the “Steele Dossier,” the private intelligence file alleging deep ties between the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign and Russia, may have moved a step closer to confirmation on Wednesday, when a new investigative report appeared to place Trump’s then-lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen in Prague, Czech Republic, at a crucial moment during the campaign.
A signal from Cohen’s personal cell phone was detected by foreign intelligence agencies in the late summer of 2016, as the signal “briefly” was relayed through a cell tower in Prague, according to the Wednesday McClatchy News report that cited “four people with knowledge of the matter.”
The report also alleges that “an Eastern European intelligence agency” monitoring phone calls among Russians picked up a conversation in which the Russians, who are not identified by the McClatchy report, discussed Cohen and mentioned that he was in Prague. Though Cohen has since pleaded guilty to several federal charges and has cooperated with Russia investigation special counsel Robert Mueller, he has publicly denied that he had ever been in Prague. As recently as two weeks ago, Cohen’s lawyer and public spokesperson Lanny Davis “vigorously” denied that Cohen had ever traveled to the Czech capital, according to National Review.
Former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, who compiled explosive dossier alleging links between the Donald Trump campaign and Russian officials, breaks silence to criticize governance of the president. https://t.co/PHqEbDYVsy pic.twitter.com/I3SC95kMsg
— ABC News (@ABC) October 11, 2018
The dossier assembled by former British spy and Russia expert Christopher Steele alleges that Cohen traveled to Prague in August or early September of 2016 specifically to discuss how to make “deniable cash payments… to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the (Hillary Clinton) campaign,” as a Vox summary quoted.
Despite Cohen’s repeated public denials that he had ever visited Prague in 2016 or at any other time in his life, McClatchy reported in April of 2018 that Mueller was in possession of evidence that Cohen had, in fact, been in Prague during that August-September 2016 time period, entering the country through Germany, accounting for the absence of a Czech Republic stamp in his passport.
Whether the cell phone evidence cited by McClatchy on Wednesday was the same evidence possessed by Mueller nine months earlier is unclear. But Mueller is now in possession of the cell phone evidence from the foreign intelligence agency, McClatchy reported.
As Inquisitr reported, Cohen claimed that he could not have been in Prague during that time period because he was vacationing in Capri, Italy, with friends, including guitarist and actor Steve “Little Steven” Van Zandt. But other reports contradicted him, saying that though Van Zandt was performing in Rome with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band around that time, Van Zandt never left Rome during that period and was not in Capri or with Cohen at all.
