Kind of a Big Deal
This is a pretty big deal.
The Christopher Steele dossier mentions a meeting between Michael Cohen (Trump’s lawyer) and the Russians between late August or early September 2016 in Prague. Trump and Cohen deny it and the Russians ain’t talking. Such a meeting, had it happened, would be the billowing smoke of collusion.
Well, McClatchy is reporting that Cohen’s cell phone pinged off cell towers in Prague in the “late summer of 2016” at the height of the campaign.
Incidentally, no visa is necessary to travel between Germany and the Czech Republic. And records of whether or not Cohen went to Germany around that time aren’t public. But the dope just could not resist making a phone call.
As more and more of the things in the Steel dossier turn out to be true, we may find out that Trumpp is withdrawing troops from Syria because of hookers and peeing.
The Orange Moron thinks we are all too dumb to figure that out. Especially Mueller. I believe he is in for quite a surprise.
The question then will be–as it always is–what will the GOPers in Congress do with this info?
1What will the traitors in Congress do? Given that Old Scratch McConnell told President Obama to sit on the Russia information prior to the election, expect Mitch to stuff this latest rabbit back into the hat, too. Or, at least try. Maybe just my wishful thinking, but of late it seems some of Mitch’s caucus are beginning to chafe at the bit.
January 3rd am placing all my money on Speaker Pelosi to outmaneuver Old Scratch daily. Hope she fires enough legislation in his direction that even the more comatose of Kentucky voters wakes up sufficiently to vote Old Scratch out in 2020. Then maybe Old Scratch and some of the more rabid Donnie apologists will do the right thing for the wrong reason, oust Donnie to save their sorry hides.
2Cell phones (unless turned off or in airplane mode) ping about once a minute whether you are making a call or not. This is to tell the cell system what towers the phone is near. So if I make a phone call to, say, Michael Cohen, the system doesn’t have to try every tower in the world to reach his phone — it just tries the one or two towers that were recently pinged. I don’t need to know where my good friend Michael is to call him, but the cell system does.
The unintended side effect of this is that everybody carrying around a cell phone is being tracked 24/7. And records of the pings are kept for months. Police can look at that data and see that a suspect’s phone traveled up the Glenn Highway at 3:00 a.m. last Saturday, spent about three hours not moving close to where the shallow grave was found, then traveled down the Glenn to near the suspect’s house about 6:30.
There is a trial underway in Palmer (Alaska) right now using cell phone tracking evidence to connect the accused to the body dump site.
1984 arrived a few years after Orwell’s prediction, but it is here now.
3Cannot for the life of me figure out why Cohen lied about being in Czech-land unless he is totally dumb about modern technology. Has he been confronted with the intelligence from the un-named intelligence operatives? If not, I would see grandma’s silver tea set to buy tickets just to be there and see his face!
4FYI: Michael Cohen also used an alias “Michael D. Hacking”
It was brought to light in a Florida law suit when a Russian hockey player’s $350,000 was held in trust by Michael Cohen. The Russian, Malakhov, sued Cohen to get his funds because Cohen never paid him. The Russian’s legal document stated that Cohen used that alias.
When the dossier was in discussion one of the first things Cohen blurted out…I was never there! You can look at my passport!! Which passport was and now again…is the question on many minds.
5Countdown until Cohen claims the cell phone “went missing” for a few days during that exact time period – – when Cohen was “someplace other than Prague” spending the entire time looking under sofa cushions and calling restaurants, taxi companies, and, and… synagogues to see if any of them had his phone in their lost and found.
And then, it just showed up! How’s that for luck!
6@Lisa on the Left Coast, we know he was in Europe at the time (Germany, if I recall correctly) and you don’t need a visa to travel from Germany to Prague. You just take a plane, train or automobile. So his passport showing him in Germany means nothing. His cell phone in Prague is damning, particularly considering he lied about it.
7In re: “we may find out that Trump is withdrawing troops from Syria because of hookers and peeing.”
As we speak, thanks to our president who thinks he’s King of Planet Zoid arriving in Iraq without diplomacy, protocols, social graces, and respect for their sovereign nation….the Iraqis are holding an emergency Parliamentary hearing to discuss having US Troops kicked out.
Who didn’t have “will cause international incident” on their bingo card?
8Have any items in the Steele Dossier been disproven?
9It’s like a giant log jam that keeps piling up more logs on the back end. I’m tired of waiting for the one that busts the whole mess loose…and takes the GOP Senate with it.
10“Cannot for the life of me figure out why Cohen lied about being in Czech-land unless he is totally dumb about modern technology.”
In case you haven’t noticed, nobody who’s been connected to Trump for any length of time is very smart. And I don’t mean they do some dumb things – most everyone does that sometimes – but that they are not smart people.
If one was smart, and heading for the meeting that Cohen was, you’d use a burner phone, leaving your usual phone somewhere else.
And you could look through my passports – current and previous – and not see any sign of any of my three visits to Prague and the rest of the Czech Republic. Great beer, cheap meals (roast trout is terrific, for two, with beer and soup, less than $20), cheap accommodation. Beautiful place.
11It appears that Cohen, like manaford, was/is trying to do what has been titled, by some, as a limited hang out.
12As the vise squeezes they just give up enough to ease the pressure but only reveal more when the vise ( legal pressure) starts to squeeze again.
It’s probably worked for them in the past and they can look to demented donnies partner felix slater (sic) who is an acknowledged master of the technique.
Cohan without a coopearation deal may actually be in a better position then flynn and manford but still not good.
But will muellar persist?
I remember how frist fizzled on valerie plume exposure.
I went to the UK and came back to the USA, and neither country stamped my passport.
This criminal enterprise at the head of our government is getting me to the point of erecting a guillotine.
13Well, perhaps Cohen *has* never been to Prague. In a “I’ve never been to DC”, while standing in Alexandria (VA) kind of way…
14It’s also not uncommon, apparently, for someone to have more than one passport. Seems shady on the face of it to me, but I guess, reasons.
I lead such a sheltered existence.
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