NSA Intercepted "Senior Kremlin Types" Chit-Chatting Cohen Was in Prague

[bigtree]

Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss 13m13 minutes ago
This, by @20committee, tracks with what I’ve been hearing. NSA and GCHQ sources behind the Cohen cellphone in Prague story. https://observer.com/2018/12/michael-cohen-prague-robert-mueller-kremlin/ …

[empedocles]

1. Sure are a lot of dots to conect

[triron]

2. Yep. Evidently it is a Russian corporation (bank?) that is fighting Muelller's subpoena.

[UpInArms]

4. Russian troll farm

Special Counsel Robert Mueller Seized Russian Trolls’ ‘Nude Selfies’

Exposing Russia’s Effort to Sow Discord Online: The Internet Research Agency and Advertisements

Or, are you speaking of the one appealing to SCOTUS?


Prosecutors win court fight over secret subpoena of a foreign company

Mystery firm takes Mueller-linked subpoena fight to Supreme Court

[getagrip_already]

6. The troll farm is largely untouchable......

All the indictments are for russian nationals well protected by putin. The lawyers are just being pests to try to get intel out of the doj. They have no assets the us can touch and no actual people we have in custody.

No actual trial will ever happen.

It's the scotus issue that is more interesting. It is a company owned by a foreign govt that does business in the us. It was being fined by the courts for not complying with their orders. Essentially they are arguing the us has no jurisdiction over them, even though they break laws here.....

[Botany]

3. Lock em up

That was treason.

[ancianita]

5. BAM.

[Initech]

7. COLLLLLLLLLLLUUUUUUUSION!!!!!

Lock them up!!!

[slater71]

8. I would think a passport check would tell the truth.

[getagrip_already]

9. probably not......

You can easily pass through borders in europe with no stamps in your passport. Especially if you have official help......

They might be able to see when he left the us and returned through customs records, but if he landed in germany, you wouldn't be able to see where he went from there. At least not by a stamp in a passport.

One speculation is it was a burn phone he gave to someone else. Another is muehler just doesn't want him to confirm it yet.

[flibbitygiblets]

12. That's what I think too. He gave a burner to someone else, who used it just long enough

to get a text or something with instructions.

What I don't get is why he'd keep the burner (assuming it was obtained in the raid on his home/office).

I know he's been an obvious liar until he started cooperating, but his #muellerknowseverything hashtag and insistence he wasn't in Prague point to someone else having that phone in Prague. And he's told Mueller who that someone was.

[byronius]

10. Prague is reachable without a passport, that's the issue. He hid the trip -- for good reason.

Because Treason.

[flibbitygiblets]

11. Not necessarily. The EU (of which Czechia is part) has open borders.

When I was there recently, a passport was needed only in the country I flew into (Germany) and out of (Italy), yet there's nothing on my passport that I was in Spain or France (where I also traveled by boat and/or train on the same trip).

So if his passport shows him anywhere in Europe that summer, then it's just a matter of how long it would take to drive, fly or train to Prague. Also, one can claim their passport was lost, and get a new one that's blank, so you have to check the issue dates. Because of that I think only customs would know if he was anywhere in Europe.

[roamer65]

14. Yes, they are a part of the EU's Schengen zone.

However, the NSA knows exactly what was going on. The birds are listening.

[lancelyons]

13. yet Cohen still claims he was not there to this very day.

[flibbitygiblets]

15. I don't think he's lying. Because the truth is coming out soon and lying at this point

does him no good if he's already cooperated with Mueller.

I think a phone "traced to him" was there, but not him.

That doesn't mean there was no collusion, it just means there was at least one other go-between.

[Texin]

16. Cohen has said he'd "never been to Prague." He didn't deny outright being in the Czech Republic.

The intelligence intercepts/phone pings, etc. identified a location outside of Prague proper, if I'm reading and hearing this correctly. So, it's what Woodward and Bernstein once characterized as "a non-denial denial." And I've seen videoclips of some meeting he was having that looked a good deal like an airport, and those are most often outside the city center in European cities.