Cell Signal Reportedly Puts Michael Cohen Outside Prague Around Time of Alleged Russian Meeting
A new report from McClatchy is claiming that a mobile phone that belonged to President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen “briefly sent signals” recorded in cell towers near Prague in late summer of 2016.
Writing for the Sacramento-based Newspaper company, Peter Stone and Greg Gordon report:
A mobile phone traced to President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, leaving an electronic record to support claims that Cohen met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter say.
During the same period of late August or early September, electronic eavesdropping by an Eastern European intelligence agency picked up a conversation among Russians, one of whom remarked that Cohen was in Prague, two people familiar with the incident said.
A big issue with Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theorists is that Michael Cohen secretly met with foreign agents at the time that this cell tower ping was reportedly recorded. For his part, Cohen has vehemently denied ever visiting Prague, best illustrated by this tweet:
I have never been to Prague in my life. #fakenews pic.twitter.com/CMil9Rha3D
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) January 11, 2017
Some conspiracy theorists note the non-denial denial as the former attorney turned states witness may have visited illicitly with a foreign agent outside of Prague and still claim that he’d never actually visited Prague. Or he could simply be lying, which is something he has pled guilty to and is serving a three-year prison sentence.
McClatchy reports:
If the foreign intelligence intercepts are accurate, the big questions now are whether Cohen has acknowledged to investigators that a meeting in Prague occurred, informed them what transpired and revealed what, if anything, he told Trump about it.
Four people spoke with McClatchy on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of information shared by their foreign intelligence connections. Each obtained their information independently from foreign intelligence connections.
If in fact that it proves to be true that Cohen was in the Prague area, despite his vigorous denials, then that would give more weight to the notion that the Trump campaign may have conspired with foreign agents in the run up to the 2016 general election.
Cohen has avoided discussing the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, claiming he doesn’t want to “jeopardize the investigation.” Cohen’s former attorney Lanny Davis had repeated his client’s denials about visiting Prague earlier this month.
(Photo by Yana Paskova/Getty Images)
