One of Team Trump's most adamant push backs against the Steele dossier was that it falsely claimed Trump's longtime fixer Michael Cohen had traveled to Prague in 2016 to meet with a Russian. Well, McClatchy just dropped a bombshell that Robert Mueller has evidence proving Cohen did, in fact, make that trip.
The Justice Department special counsel has evidence that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant, Michael Cohen, secretly made a late-summer trip to Prague during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Confirmation of the trip would lend credence to a retired British spy’s report that Cohen strategized there with a powerful Kremlin figure about Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
It would also be one of the most significant developments thus far in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of whether the Trump campaign and the Kremlin worked together to help Trump win the White House. [...] Cohen’s alleged communications with the Russians were mentioned multiple times in Steele’s reports, which he ultimately shared with the FBI.
The McClatchy report has no confirmation that Cohen actually met with a Russian while in Prague, saying “it’s unclear” whether Mueller has found any evidence of such a meeting. But the trip itself sure would undercut Team Trump's repeated claims that Cohen never traveled to Prague.
"I have never been to Prague in my life. #fakenews," Cohen tweeted in January 2017, following publication of the dossier.
In the ensuing months, he allowed Buzzfeed to inspect his passport and tweeted: “The #Russian dossier is WRONG!” [...]
But investigators have traced evidence that Cohen entered the Czech Republic through Germany, apparently during August or early September of 2016 as the ex-spy reported, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is confidential. He wouldn’t have needed a passport for such a trip, because both countries are in the so-called Schengen Area in which 26 nations operate with open borders. The disclosure still left a puzzle: The sources did not say whether Cohen took a commercial flight or private jet to Europe, and gave no explanation as to why no record of such a trip has surfaced.
Cohen also testified to Congress that he didn't go to Prague and that could be a problem:
Never mind that whatever credibility Cohen had would be completely shot.