7 thoughts on “Written Testimony of Michael Cohen”

  1. There is no mention of Prague in the statement: neither to confirm nor to deny the Steele allegation that Cohen met Russian representatives there to plan the interference in the election campaign.

    We can only speculate as to why. My guess is that if Cohen made no such visit, he would have had a strong reason to repeat the denial, as he would look less bad. “I admit to being a crook, but I am not a traitor”. If he did go, it would make sense for Mueller to have insisted on silence at this point on the smoking gun.

    1. The reason is actually much simpler. The issue of Russian interference was off of the table in yesterday’s session. It was reserved for the closed door sessions, Tuesday and Thursday, before the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, respectively.

      1. OK. We’ll just have to wait.

        BTW, AOC used her questioning time to good effect: no grandstanding, but precise and penetrating questions with good follow-up. “If you don’t know, who would?”

        1. Yah, I thought the same about AOC. She has shown an untoward affection for the spotlight in other areas, and I was afraid of what she might do in this hearing. But in fact she was more focussed and businesslike than anyone else on the committee. And she is clearly building a case to subpoena Trump’s tax returns.

          1. I have to agree about AOC. I was not a great fan of hers, but she got it right yesterday.

        2. Update: Cohen did state that he did not have direct evidence of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, merely suspicions. This implicitly repeats his denial of his Prague visit. Given the perjury penalties and his cooperation with Mueller and the SDNY US Attorney’s office, he has no further incentive to lie on this. So the Steele dosier is almost certainly wrong on this particular claim. Steele’s sources were Russian: so it was just a rumour, or a meeting with Cohen was really sought by the Russians as part of their overall and complex plan but fell through before any agent talked to him, or a meeting was held with someone else. Mueller knows and we will probably find out.

          1. My understanding is that the use of one of Cohen’s cell phones was traced to Prague. It is entirely possible that he lent the phone to someone going to Prague who used it.

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