Michael Cohen Denies New Story About Prague Meeting In 2016

Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, has dramatically reversed himself over the course of the past year, from one of Trump’s staunchest defenders to a man actively cooperating against his former client. But Cohen, throughout, has been consistent about one thing: He did not meet with Russian operatives in Prague in 2016, as was alleged in Christopher Steele’s famous dossier.

Now, even after a new report by McClatchy’s DC Bureau Thursday showing new evidence that the meeting took place, Cohen has denied it once again.

“I hear #Prague #CzechRepublic is beautiful in the summertime. I wouldn’t know as I have never been,” Cohen posted to his verified Twitter account on Thursday afternoon. “#Mueller knows everything!”

The new McClatchy report, published earlier in the day, reported that a mobile phone belonging to Cohen sent signals to cell towers near Prague in the later summer of 2016, around the time that the Steele dossier claimed that Cohen was meeting with Russian operatives in that city. The news service also reported that “electronic eavesdropping by an Eastern European intelligence agency” had picked up discussion about Cohen being in Prague, around the same time. McClatchy had reported, earlier this year, that the Mueller team was in possession of evidence that Cohen went to Prague.

A Cohen meeting with the Russians, had it taken place at that time, would seem to prove collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, which is a focus of Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation.

I hear #Prague #CzechRepublic is beautiful in the summertime. I wouldn’t know as I have never been. #Mueller knows everything!

— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) December 27, 2018

Cohen has denied that the meeting took place, and that he has ever been to Prague at all, many times over the last two years, including in press interviews, testimony before Congress, and interviews with Mueller’s team. While Cohen has been cooperating with Mueller and Southern District of New York prosecutors for months, there has been no indication from Mueller or anyone else that Cohen has admitted at any point to the Prague meeting.

While Cohen has allocuted in court to various things he had earlier denied, including setting up payments to women on Trump’s behalf and working on a Russia deal later than he previously admitted, he has not said in public that the Prague meeting happened.

The Steele Dossier, which was compiled by the former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele during the 2016 election, was a compendium of evidence alleging that Trump was compromised by Russia. The dossier circulated widely in Washington, before Buzzfeed published it shortly before the president’s inauguration.